Girl, 3 soldiers killed in Mindanao attacks

A six-year-old girl and three soldiers were slain in what were believed to be closely co-ordinated attacks by heavily armed men in Marawi City in restive Mindanao, the military reported on Thursday. Army Colonel Daniel Lucero, the regional spokesman, said 10 other soldiers and three civilians were wounded when they were ambushed and fired upon by still unidentified armed men while conducting a security patrol aboard a truck in front of the government-run Mindanao State University in Marawi City at 9pm on Wednesday. A few minutes later, Lucero said armed men launched attacks on two military outposts also in Marawi, resulting in the death of the girl who was killed by stray bullets while sleeping inside their house. The motive for the attacks has yet to be established, Lucero said, but one angle being investigated was in retaliation for the military’s active involvement in the ongoing campaign against illegal logging and illegal drugs in Lanao del Sur province and Marawi City. Politics could be another motive, Lucero said, explaining the military also assisted in ensuring the peaceful new registration of voters at the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM). Lanao del Sur is a component province of ARMM along with Maguindanao, Tawi-Tawi, Basilan and Sulu as well as Marawi City where the new list-up was ordered to cleanse the region’s voters list of minors and “flying voters” or multiple registrants. In Marawi City alone, the new registration resulted in the “purge” of at least 24,000 unqualified voters from the list, which could have angered politicians, according to Lucero. Also on Wednesday, police reported that a farmer was killed and three others, including a soldier, were wounded when suspected members of a breakaway group of the separatist Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) set off bomb explosions in Maguindanao. Police blamed the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF) which was founded by MILF “rogue” commander Ameril Umbra Kato when he seceded from the front due to major policy differences with the leaders over the conduct of the peace talks with the government. From:Gulftoday