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Suspected Islamist Group Breakout Inmates From Philippines Prison

 


More than 150 inmates escaped from a South Philippines prison after gunmen, suspected to have links with Islamist separatist groups launched an attack on the facility.

Prison authorities say around 100 armed men stormed the jail and engaged in a shoot-out with guards, as prisoners fled in the chaos, leading to the death of one prison guard and six escapees.

The Philippines, a predominantly Catholic country, has battled separatists in the south for decades, amid kidnappings, violence and jailbreaks.

Islamist groups like the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, MILF, and Abu Sayyaf have carried out terror attacks as well as kidnapping tourists for ransom in southern Philippines for decades.

The latest prison break took place at the North Cotabato District Jail near Kidapawan city, on the island of Mindanao.

Prison authorities said the gunmen showed up around 01:00 local time and opened fire on the facility, which held more than 1,500 inmates.

The shoot-out lasted for about two hours, and in the confusion some prisoners fled to the back of the prison and climbed over the walls by stacking their beds.

A prison warden, Peter Bonggat, told newsmen that the prisoners took their chances “because of the volume of fire. They used their bedding, piled them on top of each other to escape.”



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He added that he believed the attack was to free a number of Islamist rebels who were in the jail.

Philippine military and police have launched a hunt for the escaped inmates, and so far, at least six have been recaptured.




     

     

    A Philippine newspaper reported that the recent attack was the third and biggest prison escape in the past decade at North Cotabato District Jail.

    More than 40 inmates fled in 2007 when three bomb-makers were rescued by guerrillas, and four years later another group of bomb-makers also escaped.

    In August last year, the Muslim extremists group, MILF, which pledged allegiance to the Islamic State, freed eight detainees and 15 other inmates at a jail in Marawi, a city on Mindanao.

    The MILF is in the midst of a long-running peace process with the Philippine government, but it has been hampered by the fact that the group has splintered into several factions and offshoot groups, some of which have refused to surrender.

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