Marine Gen. Mohammad Ben Dolorfino, chief of the government’s Ad-Hoc Joint Action Group, said his men were on their way to Cotabato City from their headquarters in Lanao del Sur when the ambushers opened fire, wounding a certain Sgt. Luna.
The gunmen, positioned on both sides of the Secretary Narciso Ramos Highway in Pualas town, immediately fled after the Marines, led by a certain Maj. Gaerlan, returned fire and engaged them in a running gunbattle.
The wounded Luna, Gaerlan’s security escort, is now recuperating in a hospital here. — John Unson