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| Southeast Asia |
| Gunmen in police uniforms open fire in Jolo |
| 2006-06-08 |
| Gunmen clad in police uniforms opened fire at a carnival in Patikul, Jolo, killing one person and wounding two more, officials said Wednesday. Officials said prior to the attack, unidentified men also failed to blow up an Evangelical church on the island, about 950 kilometers south of Manila. "Authorities are investigating the motives for the attacks," Capt. Jose Ritche Pabilonia, a spokesman for the militaryÂ’s Southern Command, told The Manila Times. He said the attack at the carnival killed Rosalino Fabian, 25, a native of Zamboanga del Norte, and wounded Monico Maywila, 27, and Rommel Romero, 30, both from Zamboanga City. The trio, all carnival workers, were sleeping when the attack took place. The killing came just a day after unidentified men lobbed a grenade at a Protestant church in Campo Islam Village, also in Patikul. "It did not explode," Pabilonia said. He said no group claimed responsibility for the twin attacks but suspicion fell heavily on the Abu Sayyaf group linked to the Qaeda terror network, which is threatening to strike US targets on Jolo. A powerful landmine explosion Tuesday killed two government soldiers on the neighboring island of Tawi-Tawi, also a stronghold of the Abu Sayyaf. The soldiers were sent to pacify two warring clans in the village of Datal, Sapa-Sapa, when the explosion occurred. It was not immediately known if the bomb was the handiwork of the Abu Sayyaf. The blast coincided with the medical mission of the US Navy hospital ship Mercy in Jolo. Earlier media reports said Khadaffy Janjalani, the leader of the Abu Sayyaf group, and two Jema'ah Islamiyah bombers, Dulmatin and Umar Patek, both linked to the 2002 Bali attack, were spotted in Jolo, allegedly plotting to strike against the USNS Mercy. Filipino and American troops were tightly guarding the 272.5-meter-long hospital ship off Jolo Island. Muslim villagers have volunteered to protect the ship and its crew from attacks by Abu Sayyaf militants, said Maj. Gen. Gabriel Habacon, the commander of military forces in the troubled region. A US Orion spy plane was spotted flying over Jolo as troops tightened their guard on the main island where hundreds of poor Muslim villagers were screened by health workers before they were allowed to board the ship. Habacon said the reports of the sighting were unconfirmed. "We have no reports about the three terrorists hiding in Jolo, but the Abu Sayyaf has been a threat to everybody on the island, even before the Americans arrived," he said. The USNS Mercy is configured with state-of-the-art medical equipment and a strong multispecialized medical team capable of providing a wide range of services onshore and on the ship. Filipino and civilian medical professionals and nongovernmental organizations worked side by side with US and Philippine military personnel. |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |