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There’s no official explanation yet for this possibly explosive detail.
“The report of the Philippine National Police (PNP) Board of Inquiry (BOI) investigating the Mamasapano clash last Jan. 25 mentioned the involvement of US forces in the botched operation,” reports GMA News Online.
The report noted: “On Jan. 24, at least six Americans were seen with some police officials of the Tactical Command Post in Shariff Aguak.”
The report went on to recall that “the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in Feb. denied it had prior knowledge of the police raid to arrest Zulkifli bin Hir alias Marwan and Filipino bomb maker Abdul Basit Usman.”
The encounter in Mamasapano, Maguindanao on Jan 25 left 44 members of the elite Philippine National Police (PNP) Special Action Force (SAF) dead. The PNP-SAF troopers had been out to capture Malaysian terrorist Zulkifli bin Hir alias “Marwan” and Filipino bomb maker Abdul Basit Usman. Both men had bounties on their heads placed by the U.S. government: US$5 million for Marwan and US$1 million for Usman.
The operation turned bloody when members of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) said they had to fight back because the PNP-SAF had breached their territory. They alleged that they had not been informed about the operation to get Marwan and Usman. The hostile encounter lasted 11 hours. The MILF lost 18 of their fighters.
Both the government and the MILF are currently doing probes on the Mamasapano encounter to determine what went wrong, as the incident threatens the Bangsamoro peace deal. It has since been revealed that the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF) and even some armed civilians were also involved in the clash.
