ZAMBOANGA CITY – At least 3 people were killed in a roadside bombing Thursday that targeted the vice mayor of Isabela City in the restive province of Basilan in the southern Philippines, security officials said.
Officials said 5 people were also wounded, including Vice Mayor Abdulbaki Ajibon, after the bomb exploded outside the house of Mayor Cherry Akbar in Sunrise village. Ajibon’s group was travelling on a convoy of pickup truck and van and passing by Akbar’s house when the bomb went off.
Captain Roy Trinidad, a military spokesman, said the fatalities were all security escorts of Ajibon. “Initial report said three security escorts were killed and five others wounded, including the vice mayor,” he told the regional newspaper Mindanao Examiner.
No individual or group claimed responsibility for the blast, but Trinidad said authorities were investigating the bombing to determine the motive of the attack. Authorities have identified the dead only as Hajji Bari, Mohaimin and Bairula.
In May 2012, a motorcycle bomb exploded as Ajibon’s convoy was passing by Akbar’s house, although no one was killed or injured in the blast.
Police said the bomb was placed inside the tool box of the motorcycle which was parked near the house of Akbar, whose husband, Basilan Congressman Wahab Akbar, was killed in a 2007 motorcycle bomb attack outside the House of Representatives in Manila.
Basilan is a known stronghold of the rebel group Abu Sayyaf, blamed by authorities for the spate of terrorism and kidnappings in the region. (Mindanao Examiner)
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