COTABATO CITY: In an ambush that took place on Wednesday afternoon in a remote area of Barangay Lininding in Munai, Lanao del Norte, gunmen killed two Army intelligence agents.
The fatal ambush of the two soldiers from the Army’s 51st Infantry Battalion—whose names were withheld pending notification of their families—was independently confirmed to reporters on Thursday by the Lanao del Norte Provincial Police Office and the Munai Municipal Police Station.
Their bodies were taken right away to a mortuary by members of the Munai MPS and 51st IB under the command of 1Lt. John Mark Tayaban.
The guys, who were stationed along a farm-to-market route in a remote area of Barangay Lininding in Munai, shot the two non-uniformed troops dead on the spot while they were riding a motorcycle together and on a mission.
Local officials said that before they fled, their assailants stole their service weapons, wallets, and wristwatches.
There are circulating text messages implying that the atrocity was carried out by a group affiliated with Dawlah Islamiya, which functions similarly to the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria.
The bombing of Catholics attending mass at the Dimaporo Gymnasium on the campus of the state-owned Mindanao State University in Marawi City, Lanao del Sur, last month left four worshipers dead and more than forty others injured. The act was linked to the Dawlah Islamiya. Munai, a municipality with a large Maranaw population, is not too far from Marawi City.
