Manila: Abu Sayyaf gunmen killed at least 18 villagers, including women and children, in a road attack Monday as the civilians travelled in two vans to visit relatives and celebrate the end of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan in the southern Philippines, military officials said.
The brazen attack on the civilians, one of the bloodiest by the Abu Sayyaf in recent years, also wounded about a dozen other villagers, officials said. About 40 to 50 Abu Sayyaf militants, armed with assault rifles, staged the attack in a coastal village in Talipao town in predominantly Muslim Sulu province, where the militants have survived in jungle encampments despite years of US-backed Philippine military offensives, marine Brigadier General Martin Pinto and other military officials said. Sulu, about 950 kilometers south of Manila, is one of the country’s poorest provinces.
The militants opened fire on the vans, killing 16 villagers. Two children among 13 wounded villagers later died in a hospital, Pinto said.
The motive for the attack was not immediately clear, but Pinto said it may have been sparked by a family feud involving some of the militants. Among those killed were at least four members of a Talipao civilian security force called Barangay Police Action Team that has been helping the military fight militants. (AP)
