Clan war kills Moro rebel leader

Sunday, December 4, 2011

KIDAPAWAN CITY -- A Moro rebel leader in Central Mindanao was killed in an ambush by members of a kidnap-for-ransom group along a highway in Maguindanao Sunday morning.

Military spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Leopoldo Galon identified the slain leader as Guiamalon Usop of a Moro rebel group operating in Maguindanao and nearby Sultan Kudarat province.

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Galon said the ambush stemmed from a rido or clan war between Guiamalon and kidnap-for-ransom gang leader Ayob Usop who are relatives.

Guiamalon, along with seven of his men, were on their way to the Poblacion in Datu Odin Sinsuat town, Maguindanao, when ambushed at 8:45 a.m. Sunday by suspected members of Ayob’s group at Sitio Manibala, Barangay Benolen, of the same town.

The incident happened just minutes after suspected Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) members attacked a banana plantation owned by the RNF Summit and Industries Inc. in Tulunan, North Cotabato at 8:30 a.m. Sunday.

Tulunan police chief Ramel Hojilla said a certain Commander Jun Pananggulong led the attackers.

The suspects blasted the packing plant of the RNF at Purok-12, Barangay Lower Dungos in Tulunan, through an improvised explosive device fashioned from a 60-mm mortar and attached to a cell phone as triggering device, said Hojilla.

No one was reported killed or injured in the bombing, Hojilla said.

The blast took place a day after 60 former MILF members yielded to the 68th Infantry Battalion and the Tulunan Municipal Government.

The surrenderees were led by a former Bangsamoro Islamic Armed Forces MILF 108th base commander Sukarno Kusain, who is now working as security officer of the RNF Summit.

The Sunday blast was the third attack on the RNF plantation since November.

On November 22, a government-owned backhoe being rented by the company was damaged when a rocket-propelled grenade hit it.

Three days later, some 150 armed men, believed to be belonging to groups of MILF commanders Pananggulong and Zabide Abdul, attacked the village, resulting in the killing of a plantation worker and the wounding of two others.

At least 192 families vacated to safer places to avoid being hit by the bullets fired at by the suspects. (Sun.Star Davao/Sunnex)