The leader of a heavily armed kidnap gang on a US terror organization list was among those killed in an assault on one of his southern Philippine hide-outs, the military said yesterday, a day after the attack.
Military attack helicopters used machine guns and rockets to pounded the hide-out of Pentagon gang chieftain Tahir Alonto in the island village of Lumabao early Friday, killing at least 14 gunmen, said Colonel Franklin del Prado, spokesman for the army's 6th Infantry Division.
"The chieftain is gone, so our problem will be lessened," del Prado said.
He said field reports from a marshy area where the village is located in Maguindanao province, about 960km southeast of Manila, said at least 14 gunmen were killed, including Alonto.
"The good thing here was that it appears there was no collateral damage on the part of the civilian community," Bunye said in an interview with Radio Mindanao Network.
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