ZAMBOANGA CITY, 24 May 2006 — Four government soldiers were killed in separate attacks by unidentified gunmen in the southern Philippine island of Jolo, the military said.
One soldier was killed by a sniper fire as he was jogging near the Jolo airport and another was shot dead in downtown area in attacks at the weekend, officials said. Two more were killed separately on the island, about 950 km south of Manila, according to military reports from Jolo.
The military's Southern Command headquarters did not release any statement about the killings, which coincided with the arrival in Jolo of representatives from the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) investigating the implementation of the 1996 peace agreement between Manila and the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF).
Local security officials in the past hid news of killings of soldiers in the troubled southern region, where Abu Sayyaf militants tied to Al-Qaeda terror network and communist insurgents are operating.
The Abu Sayyaf is on a US list of terrorist organizations and Washington has offered as much as $10 million bounty for the capture of the group’s chieftain Khadaffy Janjalani and other known leaders.
