[Inquirer] Three people were killed in a clash between troops and communist militants in a remote area of Davao del Sur on Monday. Police chief Robert Caraoa said soldiers were conducting foot patrol in Barangay Astorga when they encountered New People's Army militants under Commander Jasmin of the Front Committee 51. A militant, a soldier, and a civilian were killed in the battle.
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[Gulf Today] The Philippine president said on Wednesday that Abu Sayyaf rebels may have plotted to kill him and kidnap boxing star Manny Pacquiao. President Benigno Aquino III said the insurgents also wanted to explode bombs in metropolitan Manila to try to get funding from the Daesh group but the plans were uncovered and troops have reduced the militants ability to inflict harm.
Aquino promised "to devote all my energies" to ensure that the rebels would be "at the very least ... a very seriously degraded problem" for his successor.
Meanwhile, in the aftermath of the hostage beheading, a senior military officer who led operations against Abu Sayyaf has been relieved of his command. Military spokesman Restituto Padilla announced the removal of Brigadier General Alan Arrojado as the commander of the Army’s 501st Brigade based on Midanao's island province of Sulu.
Padilla insisted that Arrojado's removal was not connected with the killing of Canadian national John Ridsdel whose decapitated head contained in a plastic bag was thrown by two motorcycle-riding men near the provincial capitol building in the town of Jolo, Sulu late on Monday night. He said that Arrojado has "overstayed" in his position, explaining that he had remained as the 501st Brigade commander for over two years.
Helped by helicopter gunships, the military continued their operation against the Abu Sayyaf with "no let-up" on orders of President Aquino until the Ridsdel killers have been arrested. Reliable sources said that Philippine security forces faced a dilemma because, in the ongoing campaign, they have to consider the safety of more than twenty people held hostage by the militants.
Earlier, Canadian Prime Minister Trudeau who condemned Ridsdel's beheading as a "cold-blooded murder" confirmed that he continues to hold talks with Aquino on the possibility of co-operation in going after the killers. Trudeau said, "The discussions I had with President Aquino and are continuing to have with our allies in the Philippines is the need to bring these criminals to justice and to do whatever we can to express that we are very concerned about the security of Canadians. But, at the same time, we will not pay ransom."
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[Bangkok Post] Two bombs hidden in motorcycles wounded 13 people in Narathiwat province on Monday while two rubber traders were killed in a gun battle in Yala province as violence continued across Thailand's far South.
In Narathiwat, one bomb detonated near the Muang district police station and the other exploded in front of a shop, as bomb-ordnance officers sealed off the areas. Police said 13 people were injured, including five police officers and a young girl.
An eyewitness said he saw a man parking a motorbike in front of his house before leaving on another motorcycle. He said he called police, but the bomb went off a minute later. The two explosions occurred only a minute apart.
Elsewhere, two rubber wood traders were killed in a gun attack in Yala's Muang district Monday morning. As the victims were delivering rubber-tree timber to a school, they were followed by a group of men in a pickup truck. While overtaking the jeep, the men in the truck opened fire at the traders, causing them to lose control and skid off the road, hitting a power pole. The two were riddled with bullets and died at the scene.
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
[Inquirer] Three people were killed in a clash between troops and communist militants in a remote area of Davao del Sur on Monday. Police chief Robert Caraoa said soldiers were conducting foot patrol in Barangay Astorga when they encountered New People's Army militants under Commander Jasmin of the Front Committee 51. A militant, a soldier, and a civilian were killed in the battle.
[Gulf Today] The Philippine president said on Wednesday that Abu Sayyaf rebels may have plotted to kill him and kidnap boxing star Manny Pacquiao. President Benigno Aquino III said the insurgents also wanted to explode bombs in metropolitan Manila to try to get funding from the Daesh group but the plans were uncovered and troops have reduced the militants ability to inflict harm.
