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Tuesday, June 28, 2005
Gunmen kill at least 11 villagers in Zamboanga (2:35 p.m.)
By Al Jacinto
ZAMBOANGA CITY -- Eleven people were killed and more than two dozens were wounded when gunmen attacked a remote southern Philippine village late Monday, police and military said.
The attack on a coastal village in Zamboanga Sibugay's Alicia town was believed triggered by a clan war, provincial police chief Superintendent Roseller Arieta said. "The attack was believed triggered by a clan war, and security forces are now tracking down the gunmen," Arieta said.
Police said many of the wounded were brought to different clinics in the province.
Two groups of soldiers from the Army's 1st Infantry Division were sent to the town of Alicia to pursue the raiders, a regional military commander Brig. Gen. Gabriel Habacon. "Troops were sent to the area to hunt down the perpetrators of this terrible act," Habacon said.
Habacon said at least 11 people were killed and more than two dozens wounded in the attack on La Paz village. "At least 11 civilians, mostly Muslims, are killed in the attack," he said.
He said the raiders on board three motorboats opened fire with automatic weapons on the rows of houses in the village and then sped off.
According to Police Regional Director Prospero Noble of the 11 fatalities only one was male the rest are women and children.
Many victims were relatives of a village leader, Hajji Tismal, who was shot to death in April after he was linked to the killings of two Muslim men, the officials said.
Those behind Monday's attack may have been related to the two slain men, they said.
Deadly family feuds, locally known as “rido”, have killed hundreds in the south in recent decades, exacerbated by a surfeit of unlicensed firearms and weak law enforcement.
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