ZAMBOANGA CITY (Mindanao Examiner / Dec. 26, 2011) – Four people were wounded when local militants with links to al-Qaeda terror network attacked a military post in the southern Philippine province of Sulu, officials said Monday.
Officials said among those wounded in the weekend attack in Patikul town were two Muslim children and a woman, including a marine soldier. “The Abu Sayyaf was behind the attack,” Army Lt. Col. Randolph Cabangbang, a spokesman for the Western Mindanao Command, told the Mindanao Examiner.
He said the militants fired M203 grenades onto the marine post wounding one soldier, but one of the grenades landed and exploded on a village called Kanague, wounding the woman and the children.
“The three civilians were wounded in the attack and immediately brought by soldiers to the hospital,” Cabangbang said.
The conditions of the wounded civilians were unknown, but they suffered shrapnel wounds in the body. Cabangbang said the Abu Sayyaf has been harassing military and civilians in Sulu.
Authorities have blamed the Abu Sayyaf for the spate of terrorism and kidnappings for ransom in the southern Philippines.
The Abu Sayyaf, tied by the police and military to al-Qaeda and Jemaah Islamiya, has kidnapped over a dozen people in the past years in the southern Philippines and is still holding an Indian, two Malaysians, a Japanese man and an Australian. (Mindanao Examiner)
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