A Muslim rebel was shot dead by Philippine police in the toilet of a Manila detention center yesterday, ending a three-hour hostage drama in which three guards were killed and three wounded.
The attempted jailbreak -- following the escape of an Indonesian militant from the same facility in July -- is likely to compound concerns about security ahead of a visit to Manila by US President George W. Bush on Oct. 18.
Police said the rebel, Buyungan Bungkak, grabbed an M16 rifle from one of his minders just after dawn yesterday while being escorted to an exercise yard at the Philippine National Police (PNP) headquarters.
He shot the guard and two others who tried to stop him.
Bungkak, 20, held two officers hostage for about three hours before a police SWAT team used the cover of smoke and tear gas to storm an office building inside the police compound and kill him.
"He's dead," Criminal Investigation director Eduardo Matillano told reporters. "We shot him inside a toilet."
One member of the SWAT team and the two hostages were wounded during the rescue operation, he added.
Bungkak was being held with four other Abu Sayyaf rebels as suspects in the bombing of a shopping mall in October last year in the southern city of Zamboanga. None of others tried to flee.
The 300-strong Abu Sayyaf, which has its stronghold on the southern Sulu islands, is the most violent of four Muslim rebel groups in this largely Roman Catholic nation of 82 million.
Washington blacklists Abu Sayyaf as a terrorist organization with links to Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda network, which it blames for the attacks on the US on Sept. 11, 2001.
The police chief, Director-General Hermogenes Ebdane, ordered an inquiry into yesterday's incident, citing initial reports that Bungkak was not restrained when he was brought out of the detention center.
Ebdane said investigators were looking into reports that Bungkak regularly worked as an informal janitor in the detention center and had previously tried to escape when his guards were not watching.
He also removed from duty the officer responsible for the safekeeping of prisoners and ordered the transfer of the rest of the prisoners in the facility to another detention center inside the compound.
The PNP headquarters was the scene of a rebel jailbreak on July 14 when Fathur Rohman al-Ghozi, an Indonesian member of the regional militant network Jemaah Islamiah, strolled from his cell. He has yet to be recaptured.
Two detained Abu Sayyaf rebels fled with al-Ghozi but one was later killed by soldiers on the southern island of Mindanao.
An investigation of al-Ghozi's escape blamed incompetence and a faulty cell door, but there are lingering suspicions that he was given inside help.
The ease of his escape embarrassed the Philippine government, which is a stalwart ally in the Washington-led war on terror.
Archeologists in Peru on Thursday said they found the 5,000-year-old remains of a noblewoman at the sacred city of Caral, revealing the important role played by women in the oldest center of civilization in the Americas. “What has been discovered corresponds to a woman who apparently had elevated status, an elite woman,” archeologist David Palomino said. The mummy was found in Aspero, a sacred site within the city of Caral that was a garbage dump for more than 30 years until becoming an archeological site in the 1990s. Palomino said the carefully preserved remains, dating to 3,000BC, contained skin, part of the
TRUMP EFFECT: The win capped one of the most dramatic turnarounds in Canadian political history after the Conservatives had led the Liberals by more than 20 points Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney yesterday pledged to win US President Donald Trump’s trade war after winning Canada’s election and leading his Liberal Party to another term in power. Following a campaign dominated by Trump’s tariffs and annexation threats, Carney promised to chart “a new path forward” in a world “fundamentally changed” by a US that is newly hostile to free trade. “We are over the shock of the American betrayal, but we should never forget the lessons,” said Carney, who led the central banks of Canada and the UK before entering politics earlier this year. “We will win this trade war and
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
Armed with 4,000 eggs and a truckload of sugar and cream, French pastry chefs on Wednesday completed a 121.8m-long strawberry cake that they have claimed is the world’s longest ever made. Youssef El Gatou brought together 20 chefs to make the 1.2 tonne masterpiece that took a week to complete and was set out on tables in an ice rink in the Paris suburb town of Argenteuil for residents to inspect. The effort overtook a 100.48m-long strawberry cake made in the Italian town of San Mauro Torinese in 2019. El Gatou’s cake also used 350kg of strawberries, 150kg of sugar and 415kg of
RSS