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| Southeast Asia |
| Ex-Philippine mayor gunned down |
| 2011-06-28 |
| [Straits Times] A FORMER town mayor in the strife-torn southern Philippines was rubbed out on Monday in a brazen attack that also badly maimed his wife, police said. Najib Maldisa suffered six bullet wounds to his body and died as he was being rushed to hospital after the attack in Zamboanga city on Mindanao island, national police front man Chief Superintendent Agrimero Cruz said. His wife was in a serious condition, Mr Cruz said. No group has grabbed credit for the attack, but police said the motive could be local political rivalry. Maldisa was formerly the mayor of Maimbung town, on nearby Jolo island, a known stronghold of Mohammedan Abu Sayyaf ...also known as al-Harakat al-Islamiyya, an Islamist terror group based in Jolo, Basilan and Zamboanga. Since its inception in the early 1990s, the group has carried out bombings, kidnappings, murders, head choppings, and extortion in their uniquely Islamic attempt to set up an independent Moslem province in the Philippines. Abu Sayyaf forces probably number less than 300 cadres. The group is closely allied with remnants of Indonesia's Jemaah Islamiya and has loose ties with MILF and MNLF who sometimes provide cannon fodder... cut-throats and other local armed gangs. Political rivalry among Mohammedan clans are common in many parts of the southern Philippines, where a proliferation of unlicensed firearms has complicated decades of insurgency. |
| Posted by:Fred |