Lanao del Sur mayor survives ambush

A town mayor and three of his policemen-bodyguards were wounded in an ambush staged by three unidentified gunmen in Lanao del Sur over the weekend.

Bacolod-Kalawi, Lanao del Sur Mayor Noaim Dipatuan survived the attack with a bullet wound in his right foot while a bullet grazed his head.

But his three unnamed close-in police bodyguards were critically wounded as they shielded Dipatuan, reports said.

Military and police authorities are eyeing rivalry in a local government post as the most possible motive behind the attack.

Prior to the attack, Dipatuan along with his security entourage, attended an evening prayer at a mosque in Poblocion Bacolod-Kalawi.

Dipatuan had just emerged from the Mosque at about 7:30 p.m. and was about to board his Toyota Revo when three gunmen appeared from nowhere and started firing at him and his security escorts.

Military and police probers are now eyeing Diarangan Dipatuan, the mayor’s cousin, as the brains behind the attack.