ZAMBOANGA CITY – Gunmen ambushed a car and killing a village chieftain and three other passengers in a daring attack in the southern Philippine province of Basilan, the military said Monday.
It said the car
was travelling on a village called Banah in Tipo-Tipo town when armed men
sprayed the vehicle with automatic gunfire killing all its occupants, one of
them Saudi Sarakil, village chieftain of Matata in Ungkaya Pukan.
The vehicle was peppered with
bullets and crashed on a motorcycle taxi. It was unclear if any civilians were
injured or killed in the weekend ambush.
The identities of the other victims
or the motive of the attack were not immediately known. No individual or group
claimed responsibility for the attack, but violent political rivalries, family
feud and clan war are not uncommon in Basilan, one of 5 provinces under the
restive Muslim autonomous region.
Army Lt. Gen. Corleto Vinluan,
chief of the Western Mindanao Command, tagged the ambushers as “lawless
elements” but did not specify whether the attack was an act of terrorism or
politically motivated.
Vinluan
said soldiers were deployed to track down the attackers. “Our troops from the 18th Infantry Battalion
immediately responded to the area and went after the fleeing lawless elements. Pursuit
operation is continuously being conducted,” he said.(Zamboanga Post)
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