4 dead, 2 hurt in separate attacks in hostile Cotabato town

PIKIT, North Cotabato — Two were wounded in an ambush here Friday afternoon, just four hours after gunmen killed four motorists with assault rifles in an attack in another barangay also in this troubled town.

This town has been hitting the news for about three years now owing to the unending spate of unsolved killings around and deadly gunfights between feuding Moro clans identified with either the Moro Islamic Liberation Front and the Moro National Liberation Front.

Mujahid Guiabal, 24, and the 26-year-old Anuadod Usman were together in a motorcycle when gunmen positioned along the road in Barangay Gli-Gli here opened fire, hurting them both.

Brig. Gen. Jamili Macaraeg, director of the Police Regional Office-12, said Saturday he has directed the North Cotabato Provincial Police to help the Pikit municipal police force identify the people behind the ambush of Guiabal and Usman for immediate prosecution.

The two both work in a bakery in the main commercial hub of this municipality.

Their attackers hurriedly fled when they sensed that the shots that rang through the surroundings triggered commotion among villagers.

Macaraeg said the wounded Guiabal and Usman are now confined in different hospitals.

Four persons --- Kalid Silongan 28, Ray Santander Benias, 47, William Cantonis, 41, and the 28-year-old Darwin Cantonis --- were killed in an ambush in Barangay Manaulanan, also in this town, about four hours earlier.

The victims were riding a motorcycle together en route to an interior area in Barangay Manaulanan when their attackers, positioned at one side of the road, shot them with assault rifles, killing them all instantly.

Witnesses told police probers the gunmen finished them off with shots to the head before they fled.