2 soldiers wounded in Basilan ambush

COTABATO CITY — Two soldiers from a team returning to their command post after a medical outreach mission were injured in an ambush in Barangay Magcawa, Al Barka, Basilan, on Tuesday morning, November 19.

Brig. Gen. Alvin Luzon, commander of the Army’s 101st Infantry Brigade that has jurisdiction over military units in Basilan, told reporters at noontime Tuesday that the wounded soldiers belong to the 45th Infantry Battalion. 

“They are both in safe condition. They were from a humanitarian mission when they were attacked,” he said.

Luzon said the wounded soldiers and their companions were in a KIA 450 light truck, on their way to their unit’s base in another town when gunmen positioned along the route opened fire and immediately ran away. 

Basilan Gov. Hadjiman Salliman, chairman of the provincial peace and order council, said he ordered local officials in Al Barka to cooperate with police investigators in identifying the armed men who perpetrated the ambush for them to be charged with corresponding criminal cases in court.