Basilan gunmen kill 4 commuters

ZAMBOANGA CITY , Philippines  – About 30 hooded gunmen opened fire with automatic weapons on horrified passengers who jumped off a moving jeepney and fled for their lives in Basilan yesterday.

Four died and two were wounded in the attack on the jeepney traveling from Basilan’s capital of Isabela City to Sumisip town.

Waiting in ambush atop a hill, the attackers peppered the passengers with automatic fire from M-16 and M-14 assault rifles as the jeepney passed through an uphill barangay in the town of Maluso, according to Basilan police commander Senior Superintendent Antonio Mendoza.

He identified the dead as Salsijan Sali, 22, a woman from Canas, Sumisip; another woman, a certain Ibang, 35; Solis Aspalun, 17; and jeepney driver Rodel Circulado, 35, all residents of Barangay Libug, also in Sumisip.

The wounded were taken to Basilan Community Hospital for treatment. They were identified as Hamid Hasilun, 45, and Nurjid Muhajilun, 10.

Mendoza said police found the bodies of the dead and survivors around the jeepney.

The attackers fled toward a mountainous jungle, where troops were hunting them down, according to Armed Forces Western Mindanao Command chief Lt. Gen. Benjamin Dolorfino.

Mendoza 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 fighting the Abu Sayyaf, he added.

Mendoza said police and the military ruled out the Abu Sayyaf as possible suspects in the ambush since the area of the ambush was populated by civilians.

“It could be other lawless armed groups,” he said.

Mendoza said militiamen near the area could not say they were Abu Sayyaf because the attackers were wearing hoods.

“We have to establish the motive of the attack to determine the identity of the attackers,” he said.

The ambush could be in retaliation for the beheading of a lumber poacher early this month, who was a resident of sitio Stardust, Maluso town, according to some reports.