Police stormed a maximum-security jail in a hail of gunfire yesterday, killing 22 detainees and retaking the facility from Muslim militants who stole weapons from guards during a botched breakout.
Interior Secretary Angelo Reyes said four leaders of the al-Qaeda-linked Abu Sayyaf group were among the dead, including two men who headed Monday's escape attempt at Camp Bagong Diwa in suburban Manila that left an additional five people dead.
"The terrorists got what was coming to them," Ignacio Bunye, press secretary for President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, said in a statement. "The crisis team gave them all the chances to peacefully surrender."
The assault to end the latest in a string of embarrassing jail breaks and attempts raised worries about terror attacks, national police chief Arturo Lomibao said.
"We hope there's going to be no retaliatory strikes from our Muslim brothers because they know what happened here," he said. "We tried to resolve it peacefully. There's no such thing as persecution or that we are singling them out."
An Abu Sayyaf leader still at large, Abu Sulaiman, warned the public, in an interview with DZBB radio, that the militants would bring war "right into your doorstep." The group claimed responsibility for three bombings in three cities last month that killed eight people and wounded 100.
After yesterday's assault, sweat-soaked police marksmen filed out of the building to the applause of bystanders, escorting detainees stripped to their underwear and with hands clasped behind their heads.
Officials said police found eight handguns and two unexploded grenades in the jail after the assault, which left 22 inmates and one officer dead and six other officers wounded. The lone police fatality was discovered under a pile of debris hours after the operation ended.
Senior Superintendent Benjamin Magalong called the fighting "intense."
Reyes named three Abu Sayyaf leaders among the detainees killed: Alhamzer Manatad Limbong, known as Kosovo; Ghalib Andang, known as Commander Robot; and Nadzmie Sabtulah, alias Commander Global. All were accused in mass kidnappings and other terror acts.
Abu Sayyaf detainee Hazdi Daie, a spokesman for the inmates, also was killed, Reyes said.
Identities of the other 18 detainees killed were not immediately known.
The assault came after Reyes gave the inmates 15 minutes to surrender. A deal Monday to end the drama fell apart over the militants' demand for dinner.
"They refused to yield the firearms which they grabbed from the guards and turned down our calls and assurances for their safety, including the plea of our Muslim leaders," Reyes said.
As the deadline passed, intense gunfire rang out. Police fired tear gas, and sharpshooters ran in and out of the main steel gates wearing gas masks. A police helicopter hovered above and ambulances waited for casualties.
The jail had about 425 suspects, including 129 suspected members and leaders Abu Sayyaf, notorious for deadly bombings and ransom kidnappings in which some hostages were beheaded.
CLASH OF WORDS: While China’s foreign minister insisted the US play a constructive role with China, Rubio stressed Washington’s commitment to its allies in the region The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday affirmed and welcomed US Secretary of State Marco Rubio statements expressing the US’ “serious concern over China’s coercive actions against Taiwan” and aggressive behavior in the South China Sea, in a telephone call with his Chinese counterpart. The ministry in a news release yesterday also said that the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs had stated many fallacies about Taiwan in the call. “We solemnly emphasize again that our country and the People’s Republic of China are not subordinate to each other, and it has been an objective fact for a long time, as well as
‘CHARM OFFENSIVE’: Beijing has been sending senior Chinese officials to Okinawa as part of efforts to influence public opinion against the US, the ‘Telegraph’ reported Beijing is believed to be sowing divisions in Japan’s Okinawa Prefecture to better facilitate an invasion of Taiwan, British newspaper the Telegraph reported on Saturday. Less than 750km from Taiwan, Okinawa hosts nearly 30,000 US troops who would likely “play a pivotal role should Beijing order the invasion of Taiwan,” it wrote. To prevent US intervention in an invasion, China is carrying out a “silent invasion” of Okinawa by stoking the flames of discontent among locals toward the US presence in the prefecture, it said. Beijing is also allegedly funding separatists in the region, including Chosuke Yara, the head of the Ryukyu Independence
GOLDEN OPPORTUNITY: Taiwan must capitalize on the shock waves DeepSeek has sent through US markets to show it is a tech partner of Washington, a researcher said China’s reported breakthrough in artificial intelligence (AI) would prompt the US to seek a stronger alliance with Taiwan and Japan to secure its technological superiority, a Taiwanese researcher said yesterday. The launch of low-cost AI model DeepSeek (深度求索) on Monday sent US tech stocks tumbling, with chipmaker Nvidia Corp losing 16 percent of its value and the NASDAQ falling 612.46 points, or 3.07 percent, to close at 19,341.84 points. On the same day, the Philadelphia Stock Exchange Semiconductor Sector index dropped 488.7 points, or 9.15 percent, to close at 4,853.24 points. The launch of the Chinese chatbot proves that a competitor can
‘VERY SHALLOW’: The center of Saturday’s quake in Tainan’s Dongshan District hit at a depth of 7.7km, while yesterday’s in Nansai was at a depth of 8.1km, the CWA said Two magnitude 5.7 earthquakes that struck on Saturday night and yesterday morning were aftershocks triggered by a magnitude 6.4 quake on Tuesday last week, a seismologist said, adding that the epicenters of the aftershocks are moving westward. Saturday and yesterday’s earthquakes occurred as people were preparing for the Lunar New Year holiday this week. As of 10am yesterday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) recorded 110 aftershocks from last week’s main earthquake, including six magnitude 5 to 6 quakes and 32 magnitude 4 to 5 tremors. Seventy-one of the earthquakes were smaller than magnitude 4. Thirty-one of the aftershocks were felt nationwide, while 79
RSS