Series of attacks in South disturb yuletide season

From the Mindanao Examiner (Dec 24, 2019): Series of attacks in South disturb yuletide season

COTABATO CITY – Gunmen ambushed Tuesday the deputy mayor of Shariff Aguak town in the restive Muslim province of Maguindanao, police said.

Police said Akmad Mitra was travelling in a car in his hometown when armed men opened fire that seriously left him wounded.

No individual or group claimed responsibility for the ambush, but it was the third attack since Monday in the region. 

Ambushers also killed the municipal police chief of Binidayan town in neighboring Lanao del Sur.

Executive Master Sergeant Amen Lucman Macalangan and his driver were both slain in the ambush in Pagayawan town, but 2 others survived the attack, according to Colonel Madzgani Mukaram, the provincial police commander.

He said the victims were on their way to the police headquarters from an earlier meeting in Marawi City. “Macalangan and his driver, his trusted BPAT (Barangay Police Action Team) of Binidayan, Ramel Pangcatan, died when ambushed last night. They were on their way to Binidayan from a weekly oversight meeting at the provincial police headquarters in Marawi City,” Mukaram said.

The two attacks coincided with the ambush of an army patrol in Cotabato City that left at least 8 soldiers wounded. Military officials blamed the attack on pro-ISIS militants fighting for the establishment of a caliphate in the mineral-rich, but dangerous region of Mindanao.

Several civilians were also wounded in separate bomb explosions in North Cotabato’s Libungan and North Upi towns.

https://mindanaoexaminer.com/series-of-attacks-in-south-disturb-yuletide-season/