Lanao del Norte local execs told: Keep watch, report presence of terrorists

MUNAI, LANAO DEL NORTE — Lanao del Norte Gov. Imelda Dimaporo has called on all village officials of this town, now rocked by terrorism, to step up their support to the military by providing timely information about the activities of Islamic State-linked Dawlah Islamiyah (DI) militants.

Dimaporo attended a meeting of the municipal peace and order council on Friday and told the local leaders that the first step in decisively preventing the spread of DI in the communities is by being vigilant about their presence.

READ: 6 soldiers killed in clash with terrorists in Lanao 

Dimaporo said that if the barangay governments in each of the town’s 26 villages were functional, it would have been easy to notice the inroads of DI into their communities.

Munai was the scene of fierce fighting between government troops and DI gunmen last Feb. 18 in Ramain village that resulted in six soldiers and three militants slain.

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Follow-up operations led to more clashes. On Thursday, three more DI gunmen were killed in a clash with soldiers in Matampay village. This led to some 46 families fleeing to their relatives in the nearby villages of Pelingkingan, Lindongan, and Somiorang of Tangcal town.