About 30 hooded attackers, believed to be Abu Sayyaf militants, shot and hacked horrified victims as they ran for their lives in the southern Philippines, police said Thursday. Four people died and six were wounded in the ambush on a village road. The suspected al-Qaida-linked militants apparently were trying to divert government troops from a weekslong offensive in a nearby town, said Antonio Mendoza, police chief for the island province of Basilan. Most of the victims were commuters in a passenger jeep going home from Basilan's capital of Isabela City. The attackers were positioned on a hill and opened fire with rifles. Two passengers died instantly and others jumped from the jeep to flee, Mendoza said. “They were fired upon as they ran. One of the attackers hacked a 10-year-old boy, who survived,” said Mendoza. The attackers fled toward a mountainous jungle, where troops were hunting for them, regional military commander Lt. Gen. Benjamin Dolorfino said. The mid-afternoon attack in a sparsely populated village in Maluso town is the latest violence blamed on the Abu Sayyaf and its allied armed groups on Basilan, a predominantly Muslim island about 550 miles (880 kilometers) south of Manila. About two weeks ago, Abu Sayyaf militants beheaded three loggers in a rain forest near Maluso. Mendoza, who heads a 675-strong force, said he has sought at least 300 more policemen to better secure Basilan towns.
