Police try to identify casino attacker
MANILA, Philippines — Philippine police say the attacker was a tall, English-speaking white man with a moustache. They say he carried an assault rifle, and that he used gasoline to start a casino fire that left at least 36 people dead Friday in a sprawling entertainment complex in Manila.
But by Friday evening, police said they still didn’t know the man’s name, or why he launched his attack at the Resorts World Manila complex, only to flee to a hotel and kill himself.
The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the attack, but Philippine police said they believed it had been a robbery gone wrong. Police said the man stole gambling chips worth more than $2 million US and avoided shooting people he encountered in the casino, pointing his gun upward when he fired some shots.
“He would have shot all the people gambling” if his goal was terrorism, national police chief Ronald dela Rosa said.
Islamic State said in a statement: “Brother Abu al-Kheir alArkhabili was able to immerse among a gathering of Christian fighters in the Resorts World Manila in Manila, where he carried out killing and hurting until he died as a martyr. About 100 Christians were killed or wounded.”
Military spokesman Brig. Gen. Restituto Padilla rejected the claim, saying the attack “does not have the slightest signature of terrorism whatsoever.
“As in previous incidents, this group is prone to claim and admit every criminal incident and label it as its own, clearly indicative of its pure penchant for propaganda,” Padilla said.
Many in Manila feared after the attack began early Friday that it was linked to ongoing battles with Muslim militants aligned with the Islamic State group in the southern city of Marawi. The fighting has placed much of the country on edge and raised fears that the IS group was gaining a foothold. The Philippines has faced Muslim insurgencies for decades, though much of the violence has occurred in the troubled south.
The attack occurred at a malllike complex near Manila airport. Police said during the attack the man stole casino chips, though he apparently abandoned them in a toilet soon after. “Either he lost in the casino and wanted to recoup his losses or he went totally nuts,” Metropolitan Manila police chief Oscar Albayalde said.
As the gunman left, he exchanged shots with a building guard who shot him in the leg after being wounded, police and casino officials said.
“Severe blood loss from the gunshot wound significantly slowed the assailant down and resulted in his holing up in a room where he took his own life,” said Stephen Reilly, Resort World’s chief operating officer.
The attack sent hundreds of people fleeing through the complex. A South Korean died of a possible heart attack during the evacuation, the Foreign Ministry said. More than 70 people were injured.