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6 Christians killed in Jolo
GUNMEN attacked a group of Christian families in the southern Philippines yesterday, leaving at least six dead on the island of Jolo, a mainly Muslim island hotbed of Islamic militants, police said.The apparently sectarian violence in the town of Patikul occurred in a cluster of houses behind a Philippine Marine camp, and came less than three weeks before a small group of US soldiers deploy on the island for joint military exercises. At least five unidentified gunmen opened fire on three thatch houses before dawn, killing three men. The Muslim wife of one of the victims and their eight-month old baby girl were killed along with the teenage daughter of one of the other male victims. One child wounded in the attack told reporters that the gunmen knocked on their doors to inquire if the families were Christian or Muslim. They then left but returned a few minutes later, firing their guns at the houses. Patikul is a known hotbed of the Abu Sayyaf, a Muslim extremist group linked by both Washington and Manila to the Al-Qaeda network. Posted by: Dan Darling 2006-02-03 |
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