ZAMBOANGA CITY – Suspected Abu Sayyaf rebels killed a government soldier and wounded 3 others in a failed kidnapping of a private physician in Jolo town in the southern Filipino province of Sulu, reports said Saturday.
It said Dr. Maryann Lao was shot and wounded on Friday inside her clinic along Scott Road and rebels also killed her security escort and injured another soldier and a policeman during the attack.
The rebels were targeting Lao, but failed to get the doctor after her escorts engaged the gunman in a firefight. The kidnappers escaped, according to reports.
No other details were made available by the police and the military and Jolo Mayor Hussin Amin did not release any statement on the foiled kidnapping.
In September 2003, Abu Sayyaf rebels also kidnapped Romeo Lao, a dentist; and his 16-year old nephew in downtown Jolo and freed two months later in Parang town.
The next year, rebels kidnapped an 11-year old son of a prominent medical doctor and three other companions along Scott Road in Jolo and freed them later.
Just recently, Abu Sayyaf gunmen also killed a soldier and wounded at least 8 others in separate attacks in Jolo, the capital town of Sulu, one of 5 provinces under the restive Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.
The spike in Abu Sayyaf attacks in Jolo have been largely blamed by traders to the failure of the municipal police force and military authorities in preventing the violence from erupting despite the huge presence of security men in the province. (With a report from Ely Dumaboc)
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