Gunmen believed to be Moro extremists killed 11 people, including a one-year-old baby, when they fired at villagers and burn houses in Basilan Saturday, police said. About 70 suspected Abu Sayyaf bandits and renegade renegade member of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) raided Barangay Tubigan in Maluso town at daybreak, said Senior Superintendent Antonio Mendoza, Basilan provincial police director. Among the dead were a mother identified as Abigail Bucoy, 32, and her two children – o-year-old baby Karen and nine-year-old Arjie Bucoy. Their charred remains were recovered from their burned house, police said. Security forces rushed to the area and traded gunfire with the raiders for several minutes before the bandits fled, said Chief Superentendent Bienvenido Latag, Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) police chief. “Eleven civilians were killed, 10 were hurt, and at least five houses were burned down,” Latag said in a radio interview. One of those killed was a militiaman, according to Army Lt. Steffani Cacho, spokesman for the military's Western Mindanao Command. Latag said the raid could have been part of a “rido” or clan war and was launched by a joint group of Abu Sayyaf and “lost command” MILF members said to be led by sub-grop leader Puruji Indama. A “rido” or bloody fighting between clans or families in Mindanao is aimed at obtaining justice after a member of a clan or family was wronged – ranging from insult to murder. Mendoza said the attack was motivated by Indama's personal grudge with the village's chieftain. The attack came almost 10 hours after the rescue of two Chinese Michael Tan and Oscar Lu from their Abu Sayyaf captors. The two Chinese nationals were rescued in nearby Sumisip town around 8 P.M. Friday. The victims were abducted last Nov. 10 from a plywood factory in Maluso town. The residents said they were sleeping when the attack came. One of them, Aurora Francisco, said they were celebrating a religious festival the night before the attack. She said the bandits could have been hiding in the vicinity of their village during the celebration which lasted till the early hours of the following day. When they were about to retire to their homes, the gunmen attacked, she said. “We don't know what we're going to do. Maybe we will still return because we have no other home,” Francisco said.
