Twenty die in fresh unrest in Philippines
MANILA: Twenty people died in a single day in the southern Philippines following a fresh outbreakofunrestinthestrife-torn region, officials said Saturday.
The military earlier said that 15 people were killed Friday after heavy fighting between government forces and Al-Qaedalinked militants in the jungle region, where various Muslim extremist and bandit groups are active.
Three plantation workers including a father and son were shot dead in the southern island of Basilan on Friday in a suspected extortion attempt, said Senior Inspector Gean Gallardo, police chief of the island’s capital.
“These three victims are just ordinary workers who have no axe to grind with anybody,” he said.
On the same day, an eight-yearold girl and a 43-year-old man were killed by a mortar shell fired by the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF) in the southern town of Pikit, said regional military spokesman Colonel Dickson Hermoso.
The rebels had fired the mortars to drive off police and military men who were trying to arrest one of their commanders, he said.
The military had previously said five soldiers and 10 fighters from the Al-Qaeda-linked Abu Sayyaf extremist group were slain in fighting on Jolo island in the southern Sulu archipelago on Friday.
Regional military spokeswoman Captain Rowena Muyuela said the incidents were not directly linked. “They all involve different groups”.
However she said the increased violencewasaresultofgovernment efforts to capture various outlaws.
“These are all because of intensified law-enforcement operations,” she told AFP.
Set up in the 1990s with seed money from Osama bin Laden’s Al-Qaeda network, theAbuSayyaf, based in the islands of Basilan and Sulu, has been blamed for the worst terror attacks in the Philippines’ history, including bombings and mass kidnappings of Christians and foreigners.
The group is believed to be holding at least 13 other hostages, includingfiveforeigners,according the Philippine military. — AFP