COTABATO CITY – Philippine police on Sunday denied ISIS claims on deadly attack Resorts
World Hotel in Manila and said it already identified the lone gunman as a
Filipino, who barged in a casino and torched gambling tables and eventually killed
himself following a brief clash with security guards.
Oscar
Albayalde, chief of police of the National Capital Region, said identified the
attacker as Jessie Carlos, who was a former employee of the Department of
Finance. The 42-year old Carlos was fired from his job for misdeclaring his
assets.
Albayalde,
quoting an initial police report, said the man was a casino gambler and heavily
indebted. “He has a bank account with an outstanding debt of four million pesos,
and several other non-bank related debt. He sold his Ford Ranger (truck) due to
financial constraints,” he said, adding, the attack was not an act of
terrorism.
No
other details were made available by the police on Carlos’ background or
whether he had any affiliation with a rebel or jihadist group, or what pushed
him to commit such a daring attack on the casino. The attacker was previously thought to be a foreigner after witnesses claimed Carlos spoke in English, but a cabbie, who dropped Carlos at the hotel, told police that the man spoke fluently in Tagalog.
The police announcement came a day after the Islamic State
has for the second time claimed responsibility for the casino attack and even
identified the lone gunman by his nom de guerre as Abul Al-Kahir al-Arkhabili.
It said the daring attack was carried out by one of its
jihadists who later shot himself in the head in one of the hotel rooms after
setting fire gambling tables and carpets that suffocated the victims.
The Islamic State, in a statement released through its Amaq
News Agency, said: “With God’s help, our brother Abul Khayr al-Arkhabili
managed to hide with his machine gun among a group of Christians, who fight
Islam, inside a Resorts World resort in Manila, Philippines, where he opened
fire on them, killing and injuring about 100 of them, until he, eventually,
died as a martyr.”
The
Friday’s attack sent heavily-armed policemen to the hotel, but failed to capture
the gunman, who moved from one floor to another while setting everything on
fire and virtually trapping many people. Among those who died were 22 guests
and the rest hotel employees.
Stephen Reilly, the Chief
Operating Officer of Resorts World Manila, identified the guests as Caccam
Catherine Cervantes, P Ling Hung Lee, Pacita Guillermo Comquilla, Pomenciano
Vargas Jr., Susan Abulencia, Lai Wei Chung, Jaime Gaboy Jr., Ariel Abrogar, Lai
Yu Cheeh, Cliff Reyniera, Rolando Pena Sison, Eluterio Reyes, Antonina Yuzon
Allanigue, Shiela Malicse, Carmelita Taylo Dela Cruz, Mielle Oliveros, Pamela
Silvestre, Elizabeth Gonzales, and two others remain unknown.
The employees were also
named as Hazel Yangco, Jellah Ramos, Melvin Herrera, Arvi Gavino, BJ
Pagsibigan, Rojie Uy, Jessica Alindogan, Merylle Gwen Ala, Lea Grace Mozo,
Loudette Santos, Kay Nuguerra and two more who are still unidentified. Reilly
said there was only one gunman and that hotel security shot and wounded the
attacker.
Both the Philippines police
chief Ronald dela Rosa and Albayalde previously said the ISIS claim of responsibility
for the attack was a mere propaganda. Television news pictures showed the
attacker brandishing an automatic rifle and wearing a black bonnet and a jacket
and carrying a back pack. It was unknown how the man managed to sneak the
weapon into the casino.
The attack coincided with
heavy fighting between military and ISIS forces in Marawi City in southern
Philippines. It was unknown whether the hotel attack was connected to the siege
in Marawi.
The SITE Intelligence
Group, a U.S. terrorism monitor, said an Islamic State-linked Filipino
operative who provides daily updates on the ongoing clashes in Marawi, claimed
that “lone wolf soldiers” of the Islamic State group were responsible for the
attack at Resorts World Manila.
An English message by the
operative was distributed across several pro-IS Telegram chat groups, SITE
said. According to SITE, he wrote: “The lone wolf soldiers of Khilafah attack
the heart of Kufar the city of Manila in Resort World.”
President Rodrigo Duterte
sent thousands of soldiers, backed by military planes and tanks, to Marawi City
to end the siege by about 500 local ISIS fighters.
The military
said troops had killed at least 120 militants, however, only recovered 42
bodies of jihadists, including 98 assorted weapons, from an automatic rifle to
machine guns, left behind by the ISIS fighters, mostly members of the Maute and
Abu Sayyaf groups. But 38 soldiers also perished in the violence with dozens
more injured in fierce urban and close-quarter clashes.
Duterte declared martial
law in Mindanao region to crush the rebellion in Marawi which started on May
23, but fighting between troops and jihadists were also reported in the
provinces of Basilan and Sulu and communist rebels take advantage of the
violence by launching attacks on military and government targets elsewhere in
the country. (Mindanao Examiner)
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