Security forces have killed two suspected militants in a clash in the southern Philippines, the military said.
In a report, the military said that fighting broke out around 5am local time on Saturday after troops chanced upon a group of Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF) in a village in Maguindanao del Sur province.
The BIFF militants fled after the fighting, leaving behind an M16 assault rifle, a .50-calibre homemade barret and two improvised explosive devices, the report read.
The BIFF, a small armed group aligned with the Islamic State group, is blamed for bombings and other atrocities in the Central Mindanao region in the southern Philippines.
The group broke off from the Moro Islamic Liberation Front when the latter agreed to negotiate a peace pact with the government in 2014. — Xinhua