MANILA, Philippines: Philippine police killed three detained militants linked to the Islamic State group after they staged a jail rampage Sunday that saw a police officer stabbed and a former opposition senator briefly held hostage in a failed escape attempt from the maximum-security facility in the police headquarters in the capital, police said.
National police chief Gen. Rodolfo Azurin Jr. said former Sen. Leila de Lima was unhurt and taken to a hospital for a checkup following the brazen escape attempt and hostage-taking at the detention center for high-profile inmates at the main police camp in Metropolitan Manila.
One of the three inmates stabbed a police officer who was delivering breakfast after dawn in an open area, where inmates could exercise outdoors. A police officer in a sentry tower fired warning shots, and then shot and killed two of the prisoners, including Abu Sayyaf commander Idang Susukan, when they refused to yield, police said.
The third inmate ran to de Lima’s cell and briefly held her hostage, but he was also gunned down by police commandos, Azurin said.
“She’s safe. We were able to quickly resolve the incident inside the custodial center,” Azurin told reporters and justified police action to shoot the inmates. “Sen. De Lima was already being held hostage so should we let that very critical situation drag on?”
Susukan, who had been blamed for dozens of killings and beheadings of hostages, including foreign tourists, and other terrorist attacks was arrested two years ago in southern Davao city.
The other two inmates, Arnel Cabintoy and Feliciano Sulayao Jr., were suspected members of the Dawlah Islamiyah, a militant group that has been linked to bombings and other deadly attacks in the country’s south. They were arrested in 2019 in suburban Quezon city in the capital region, and were facing non-bailable charges like Susukan, police officials said.
Many militants belonging to Abu Sayyaf, which the United States and the Philippines have blacklisted as a terrorist organization, and the Dawlah Islamiyah have aligned themselves with the Islamic State group.
The police officer who was stabbed with an improvised knife was in serious condition at a hospital, Azurin said. Another inmate was injured in the rampage, police said.