COTABATO, Philippines: Nine people were killed and three injured in the southern Philippines Saturday when a convoy of SUVs was shot at in an ambush linked to a feud between rival Muslim clans, police said.
The attack occurred in a region with a long history of violence, and a short drive from where 58 people — including 32 journalists — were murdered in the nation’s worst political massacre in 2009.
Clan leader Peges Mamasainged and eight others were killed as they traveled down a farm-lined road in Maguindanao province, according to police.
Both the victims and attackers were led by former commanders of a Muslim guerilla group that waged a bloody, decades-long insurgency in the region before a peace agreement was signed in 2014, provincial police spokesman Fhaeyd Cana told AFP.
Authorities are looking for suspects led by Mamasainged’s rival, Cana said, adding the two families were involved in a long-running blood feud.
Well-armed Muslim families in the mainly Catholic country’s lawless south at times resort to clan warfare to settle disputes that can last for generations.
“[Guindulungan town] police described this attack as a rido,” Cana said, using the local term for blood feud.
The attack was the province’s bloodiest since the 2009 massacre, he added.
Five clan members were among the gunmen found guilty of those killings. The family’s leaders were sentenced to 30-year prison terms in 2019.
Both the main suspect in Saturday’s attack and the slain Mamasainged were once commanders of the Bangsamoro Islamic Armed Forces, the military arm of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front.
The front signed a peace deal with Manila in March 2014, ending decades of rebellion that claimed tens of thousands of lives. Its leaders now head a self-ruled area in the former battlefields that includes Maguindanao.
However, the decommissioning of thousands of former guerrilla fighters and their weapons has been delayed by the coronavirus pandemic as well as technical issues.
Nine dead in feud between Philippine Muslim clans
https://arab.news/caytf
Nine dead in feud between Philippine Muslim clans
- The attack occurred in a region with a long history of violence
- Clan leader Peges Mamasainged and eight others were killed as they traveled down a farm-lined road in Maguindanao province
Kyiv ready for talks ‘next week’ with US over Russia proposals: Zelensky
- “Ukraine is ready to work in all working formats,” said Zelensky.
- “It is important that there are results and that the meetings take place“
KYIV: Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky said Saturday his negotiators were waiting to hear from the United States on further meetings about ending the war with Russia.
Zelensky’s remarks in his evening address appeared to suggest that a second round of talks scheduled to start in Abu Dhabi on Sunday between US, Russian and Ukrainian officials on ending the fighting had been postponed.
“Ukraine is ready to work in all working formats,” said Zelensky.
“It is important that there are results and that the meetings take place. We are counting on meetings next week and are preparing for them.”
Zelensky was speaking as US envoy Steve Witkoff said he had had “productive and constructive” talks with Russian envoy Kirill Dmitriev in Florida on Saturday.
Teams from Ukraine and Russia met Friday and Saturday last week in Abu Dhabi in their first in-person negotiations on a plan being pushed by President Donald Trump to end the war.
They had agreed to resume talks there on Sunday.
On Thursday however, Zelensky suggested that the date and venue could change given the current tensions between Washington and Tehran.
The US says both sides are close to a deal, but they have so far been unable to find a compromise on the key issue of territory in a post-war settlement, according to Kyiv.
