Philippines | Gunman wounds Saudi preacher, diplomat in Zamboanga

A gunman attacked and wounded a Saudi preacher and a diplomat from Saudi Arabia’s embassy before being killed by policemen in the southern city of Zamboanga, police said yesterday.
Preacher Aaidh Al-Qarni was about to leave Western Mindanao State University after delivering a lecture late Tuesday when he and religious attache Turki Assaegh were shot by the gunman, who darted out from a crowd, police spokeswoman Senior Inspector Helen Limen Galvez said.
Both victims were taken to a hospital for treatment and declared out of danger, Galvez said. Al-Qarni was shot in his right shoulder, left arm and chest while Assaegh was hit in his right thigh and left leg.
Investigators at the scene found a pistol and a motorcycle the gunman may have used, police said. Policemen later arrested two other suspects in connection with the attack, Galvez said.
The motive for the attack was not immediately clear.
Philippine Foreign Undersecretary Rafael Seguis said last week that the Saudi government had asked several countries, including the Philippines, for improved security because of a possible threat, the nature of which was not specified.
Philippine police strengthened security at Saudi Arabia’s embassy and its national airline following the request, Seguis said.
Seguis noted that Saudi Arabia has a conflict with Iran, where the Saudi Embassy recently came under attack, but said it’s hard to say whether the reported threat was connected to that.
Protesters set fire to the Saudi Embassy in Tehran and attacked its consulate in another Iranian city in response to the kingdom’s execution of a prominent Shiite cleric on Jan 2. The protests prompted Saudi Arabia to cut diplomatic ties with Iran, escalating tensions between the longtime regional rivals.
Zamboanga, a major port city 860 kilometers south of Manila, has been hit by deadly bombings blamed on Abu Sayyaf militants, some of whom have pledged support to the Islamic State group.
Also this week, a major military offensive has killed 24 suspected local sympathizers of the Islamic State group and captured their remote southern stronghold, where troops raised the national flag on Tuesday, the military said.
Six soldiers were killed and a dozen others were wounded in the weeklong campaign that involved about 2,000 military personnel in Butig town in Lanao del Sur province, Armed Forces of the Philippines spokesman Brig. Gen. Restituto Padilla said.
Army generals turned over control of the captured militant stronghold in Poktan village to the Butig town mayor after the flag-raising ceremony, which was held near where leaders of the extremist group identified as Omar and Abdullah Maute used to live, Padilla said.
About 40 militants attacked an army camp in Butig on Feb. 20 in the predominantly Muslim region about 840 kilometers south of Manila. More militants, some wearing black arm and head bands with Islamic State group-style symbols, later joined in the fighting, prompting the military to deploy three battalions of troops backed by assault helicopters and artillery fire, according to the military. AP