2 killed, 5 wounded in Cotabato ambush

COTABATO CITY, Philippines – Two men were killed and five others were wounded in an ambush near a police station here yesterday morning.

The fatalities, Peks Sultan, and Siramen Abdullah, along with five others, including Amil Sula, chairman of Barangay Rosary Heights 5 here, were aboard a tinted van when still unidentified men, positioned on one side of a narrow path near a public cemetery, shot them with assault rifles.

Witnesses said the gunmen had scampered in different directions before policemen from their station a block away reached the scene.

Sula and his four wounded companions were brought to a local hospital.

Police are still clueless on the motive behind yesterday’s ambush.

More than 200 people have been killed here in one attack after another in the past three years, with most of the killings recorded in the past 12 months.

The killings, some believed perpetrated by guns-for-hire, prompted the city council to hold early this month a multi-sectoral, inter-agency security summit.

– John Unson, Jaime Laude