Twenty die during fresh unrest in the southern Philippines
Twenty people die in a single day in the southern Philippines following a fresh outbreak of separatist unrest in the strife-torn region.
Twenty people died in a single day in the southern Philippines following a fresh outbreak of unrest in the strife-torn region, officials said on Saturday.
The military earlier said that 15 people were killed on Friday after heavy fighting between government forces and al-Qaeda-linked militants in the jungle region, where various Muslim extremist and bandit groups remain active.
Three plantation workers including a father and son were shot dead in the southern island of Basilan on Friday in a suspected extortion attempt, said Senior Inspector Gean Gallardo, police chief of the island’s capital.
“These three victims are just ordinary workers who have no axe to grind with anybody.”
“These three victims are just ordinary workers who have no axe to grind with anybody,” he said.
On the same day, an eight-year-old girl and a 43-year-old man were killed by a mortar shell fired by the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF) in the southern town of Pikit, said regional military spokesman Colonel Dickson Hermoso.
The rebels had fired the mortars to drive off police and military who were trying to arrest one of their commanders, he said.
The military had previously said five soldiers and 10 fighters from the Al-Qaeda-linked Abu Sayyaf extremist group were slain in fighting on Jolo island in the southern Sulu archipelago on Friday.
