ZAMBOANGA CITY, 2 August 2003 — Four people were shot dead in separate attacks in the southern island of Jolo, the military said yesterday.
Three men gunned down a village councilor Andres Yba?ez in the island town of Siasi on Tuesday and escaped after the attack. The victim was walking on his way home when he was attacked in Tara Tuho-Tuhog village, the military said.
Three men, all from Zamboanga City, were also killed in Jolo’s Patikul town on Tuesday, but the military said the two attacks were not connected.
The bodies were discovered by civilians on a creek near the village of Kugas. The military said the trio — Mario Roa, Mahmor Jamasari and a third whose body remains unidentified — were shot to death.
No group claimed responsibility for the killing, but the town is a known lair of Al-Qaeda-linked Abu Sayyaf rebels, blamed for the series of kidnappings and terrorism in the southern Philippines.
Witnesses told the military that they saw the trio arrive in Jolo by boat on Sunday and were fetched by unidentified men on three motorcycles. There were no other details. Authorities have blamed the rebels for the spate of killings in Jolo.
