Eleven members of the Islamist Maute group have been killed in clashes with government soldiers in Butig town in Lanao del Sur, the military said Sunday.
Col. Edgard Arevalo, public affairs chief of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), said five more members of the bandits group were wounded in the clashes, which started Saturday morning.
Arevalo said the military launched an offensive against the Maute Group after its members occupied the old and abandoned municipal hall of Butig town, the bandit group’s former stronghold seized by the military early this year.
“This prompted the immediate conduct of military operations focused on dislodging the lawless group. [Two] soldiers were slightly wounded while 11 members of Maute Group were killed and at least [five] wounded,” Arevalo said in a statement.