SAYYAF TARGETS DOCTOR IN SULU: Foiled kidnapping kills soldier, wounds 3

From the Manila Times (May 28): SAYYAF TARGETS DOCTOR IN SULU: Foiled kidnapping kills soldier, wounds 3

Suspected Abu Sayyaf rebels killed a government soldier and wounded three others in an aborted kidnapping of a lady doctor in Jolo town, Sulu.

Police said doctor Maryann Lao was shot and wounded on Friday inside her clinic along Scott Road by her would-be abductors who killed her security escort and seriously wounded another soldier and a policeman during the attack.

The rebels were targeting Lao, but failed to get the doctor after her escorts engaged the gunmen in a firefight.

No other details were made available by the police and the military, except that the kidnappers escaped following the incident.

Jolo Mayor Hussin Amin did not release any statement on the foiled kidnapping.

In September 2003, Abu Sayyaf rebels also kidnapped Romeo Lao, a dentist, and his 16-year-old nephew in downtown Jolo. They were freed two months later in Parang town, Sulu but it was not disclosed if ransom was paid for their release.

The following year, rebels also kidnapped an 11-year-old son of a prominent medical doctor and three other companions, also along Scott Road in the town and were freed later.

Recently, Abu Sayyaf gunmen also killed a soldier and wounded at least eight others in separate attacks in Jolo, the capital town of Sulu, one of five provinces under the restive Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM).

The spate of Abu Sayyaf attacks in Jolo have been largely blamed by traders to the failure of the municipal police force and military authorities in preventing violence from erupting despite the large presence of security men in the province.

http://www.manilatimes.net/foiled-kidnapping-kills-soldier-wounds-3/264690/