Injured	Killed
0	4

Date: 23 June 2010
Source: http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/inquirerheadlines/regions/view/20100624-277341/Basilan-commuters-attacked-4-dead

AT LEAST 30 hooded members of the Abu Sayyaf shot and hacked passengers of a public utility jeep in Basilan yesterday as the victims ran for their lives in the latest of a series of terror attacks that a bishop has condemned as an illustration of the reign of lawlessness in the province.

Four, including two women, died and six were wounded in the attack.

The al-Qaida-linked bandits apparently were trying to divert government troops from an offensive in a nearby town, said Antonio Mendoza, police chief for the island province of Basilan.

Mendoza said he believed the bandits were led by Puruji Indama, the same gang leader behind the kidnappings of two gay beauticians, a construction worker and three loggers. The loggers had been beheaded.

Most of the victims were commuters in a public utility jeep going home from Basilan’s capital of Isabela City.

Mendoza identified the slain female victims as Salsijan Ampuan Sali, a 22-year-old resident of Sumisip town and Rahma Anjalun, 35, of Libug village, also in Sumisip.

The other slain victims were Rodel Weng Circulado, 35, and Solis Aspalun, 17.

The attackers were positioned on a hill and opened fire with rifles. Two passengers died instantly and others jumped from the jeep to flee, Mendoza said.

“They were fired upon as they ran. One of the attackers hacked a 10-year-old boy, who survived,” Mendoza told The Associated Press.

“We found the bodies and survivors scattered outside the jeep. It’s sad, these outlaws don’t have any regard for life.”

The bandits fled to a mountainous jungle, where troops were hunting them, regional military commander Lt. Gen. Benjamin Dolorfino, Marine chief, said.

The mid-afternoon attack in sparsely populated Maluso village is the latest episode of violence blamed on the Abu Sayyaf and its allied armed groups on Basilan, a predominantly Muslim island about 880 kilometers south of Manila.

Mendoza, who heads a 675-strong force, said he has sought at least 300 more policemen to better secure Basilan towns. About 100 extra police commandos were deployed to Basilan weeks ago to reinforce Marines and Army troops hunting Abu Sayyaf fighters.

Despite years of US-backed offensives, nearly 400 Abu Sayyaf fighters have survived in Basilan and on nearby Jolo island and the Zamboanga peninsula. They remain a major security concern as part of a decades-long Muslim insurgency.

About 250 Abu Sayyaf fighters are based in Basilan. Their ranks have been bolstered by several militants who have moved from Jolo in recent months to escape intensified US-backed offensives there, military officials say.

Two militants with the Southeast Asian militant network Jemaah Islamiyah—Malaysian Zulkifli bin Hir, who goes by the alias Marwan, and a Singaporean known only as Mauwiyah—were among those who have fled to Basilan from Jolo, according to a military intelligence official who helps oversee counterterrorism assaults.

The United States has offered a $5-million reward for Marwan’s capture.

The Abu Sayyaf, founded in Basilan in 1991, is believed by US and Philippine security officials to have received funds and training from Osama bin Laden’s network. Julie Alipala, Inquirer Mindanao; and Jim Gomez, Associated Press