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11 killed, 10 others hurt in Basilan bandit attack


At least 11 people, including a one-year-old baby, were killed and several others were hurt when an armed group believed to be composed of members of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front and Abu Sayyaf bandits stormed a village in Maluso town in Basilan on Saturday morning, a police official said. Chief Superintendent Bienvenido Latag, Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) police chief, said the attack happened at about 5:45 a.m. in Barangay (village) Tubigan, Maluso - a fourth class municipality in the southern Philippine island province. He said the armed men trudge into the village and "harassed" villagers and even burned down houses there. Security forces responded and exchanged fires with the unidentified armed men, who fled several minutes after the firefight. "Labing-isa ang sibilyan na patay, 10 ang wounded at may mga sinunog pa sila na limang kabahayan (11 civilians were killed, 10 were hurt, and at least five houses were burned down)," Latag said in a radio dzBB report.
View Maluso in a larger map One of those killed was a militiaman, according to Army Lt. Steffani Cacho, spokesman for the military's Western Mindanao Command. Latag identified the fatalities, which included one-year-old Karen Bucoy and nine-year-old Argie Bucoy. Other civilians killed were Estelito Bagus, Benjie Lapil, Jemaar Aracali, Rodel Odin Pagalian, Gian Lapi, Salima Salapuddin, Lorna Sahida Talisa, Kawasil Ismiran, and Abigail Bucoy, 32. The police official said the wounded victims had already been rushed to the hospital when government troops arrive in the area. A crisis management committee has already been formed to give assistance to affected families, he added. Latag suspected the attack could have been part of a "rido" or clan war — and was launched by a joint group of Abu Sayyaf and MILF "lost command" members allegedly led by sub-leader Puruji Indama. In some parts of Mindanao, a rido or bloody feuding between clans or families is aimed at obtaining justice after a member of a clan or family was wronged – ranging from insult to murder. "Mukhang pagganti ito ng grupo ng isa sa mga kumander na kasama ni Puruji kasi ang sinasabi nila parang namatay ata ang isang kaanak ng [member nila],"Latag said. Indama is the same person blamed for the kidnapping of two Chinese and a Filipino worker from a plywood factory, also in Maluso, last November 10. The Filipino hostage, Mark Singson, was later beheaded after his employer, Hi-Tech Wood Craft Corporation, failed to pay ransom. Incidentally, the remaining two Chinese captives - Zi Shun Lu, 51, alias Oscar Lu; and Bo Shung Tan, 27, alias Michael Tan - were rescued by government forces less than nine hours before the attack in Tubigan village. [See: Security forces rescue 2 kidnapped Chinese in Basilan] The three were rescued in the village of Binembengan in the island province's Sumisip town, after three months in captivity.— LBG, GMANews.TV

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