Manila, June 24: About 30 hooded attackers, believed to be Abu Sayyaf militants, shot and hacked horrified victims running for their lives in the southern Philippines, police said on Thursday. Four died and six were wounded in the brazen attack.
The al-Qaida-linked militants apparently were trying to divert government troops from a weekslong offensive in a nearby town, said Antonio Mendoza, police chief for the island province of Basilan.
Most of the victims were commuters in a passenger jeep going home from Basilan’s capital of Isabela City. The attackers were positioned on a hill and opened fire with rifles. Two passengers died instantly and others jumped from the jeep to flee, Mendoza said.
“They were fired upon as they ran. One of the attackers hacked a 10-year-old boy, who survived,” Mendoza told The Associated Press.
“We found the bodies and survivors scattered outside the jeep. It’s sad, these outlaws don’t have any regard for life.”
The attackers fled toward a mountainous jungle, where troops were hunting them, regional military commander Lt. Gen. Benjamin Dolorfino said.
The mid-afternoon attack in sparsely-populated Maluso village is the latest violence blamed on the Abu Sayyaf and its allied armed groups on Basilan, a predominantly Muslim island about 550 miles south of Manila.
—PTI—