Al-Qaeda-linked militants killed 11 people in the southern Philippines yesterday, hours after two hostages they were holding walked free, the government said.
Members of the Abu Sayyaf extremist group and other gunmen raided the town of Maluso on Basilan island before dawn, killing a government militiaman and 10 civilians, regional health chief Kadil Jojo Sinolinding said.
“Most of the victims were still asleep when they were strafed and then their houses were torched,” he said after treating the victims.
Seventeen people were also wounded in the attack with nine in critical condition, four of whom were children, Sinolinding said.
Among the victims was a one-year-old girl whose burned body was later found in the ruins, Basilan police chief Senior Superintendent Antonio Mendoza said.
Mendoza also said that members of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), the country’s main separatist group, took part in the clash despite a ceasefire they signed with the government to seek a peace accord.
“Some members of the MILF have participated,” he told reporters.
Spokesmen for the MILF could not be contacted for comment.
Soldiers were sent to secure the area, but the attackers fled after burning four houses including the village chairman’s, military spokeswoman Lieutenant Steffani Cacho said.
The military is searching for the attackers, but there have been no reports of further clashes.
The attack, led by Abu Sayyaf commander Puruji Indama, was motivated by a personal grudge with the village chairman, Mendoza said.
However, police said they were also looking into whether the attack might be linked to the recovery of two factory workers kidnapped by the same Abu Sayyaf group in Maluso more than three months ago.
“It is possible that they are connected because the same perpetrator is behind the kidnapping and the attack on the town,” regional police head Chief Superintendent Bienvenido Latag said.
Indama kidnapped factory workers Michael Tan, Oscar Lu and Mark Singson on Nov. 10. Singson’s severed head was recovered in early December, but Tan and Lu were picked up by police late on Friday.
It was unclear if a ransom had been paid. The kidnappers are known to have demanded money from the families of the surviving victims, who police said are both of Chinese descent.
The two were taken to a hospital in Basilan for an examination and will later be debriefed, Mendoza said.
“They are having trouble walking,” he said.
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
China's military today said it began joint army, navy and rocket force exercises around Taiwan to "serve as a stern warning and powerful deterrent against Taiwanese independence," calling President William Lai (賴清德) a "parasite." The exercises come after Lai called Beijing a "foreign hostile force" last month. More than 10 Chinese military ships approached close to Taiwan's 24 nautical mile (44.4km) contiguous zone this morning and Taiwan sent its own warships to respond, two senior Taiwanese officials said. Taiwan has not yet detected any live fire by the Chinese military so far, one of the officials said. The drills took place after US Secretary
THUGGISH BEHAVIOR: Encouraging people to report independence supporters is another intimidation tactic that threatens cross-strait peace, the state department said China setting up an online system for reporting “Taiwanese independence” advocates is an “irresponsible and reprehensible” act, a US government spokesperson said on Friday. “China’s call for private individuals to report on alleged ‘persecution or suppression’ by supposed ‘Taiwan independence henchmen and accomplices’ is irresponsible and reprehensible,” an unnamed US Department of State spokesperson told the Central News Agency in an e-mail. The move is part of Beijing’s “intimidation campaign” against Taiwan and its supporters, and is “threatening free speech around the world, destabilizing the Indo-Pacific region, and deliberately eroding the cross-strait status quo,” the spokesperson said. The Chinese Communist Party’s “threats
RSS