Police commandos injured in Sulu road accident

SULU, Philippines (Mindanao Examiner / Aug. 18, 2010) – Three police commandos responding on a burst of gunfire were seriously injured after a police truck carrying reinforcements ran over them on a village in the southern Filipino province of Sulu, officials said Wednesday.

Officials said members of the Special Action Force were positioned on a road in the village of Adjid in Indanan town when the truck driver lost control of the wheel and plowed to a group of commandos.

The commandos, who came from the town of Panglima Estino, were in a convoy of two trucks and patrol jeeps passing the village on their way to barracks when shots rang out. Fearing it was an ambush by rebels, a group of commandos jumped out of their truck and took cover, but the second truck carrying the reinforcement rammed those on the road, officials.

The wounded officers were rushed to a military hospital in the capital town of Jolo.

It was not immediately known whether the shots were directed at the police convoy or an indiscriminate firing by farmers, who traditionally armed themselves to protect them from bandits and rebels.

Last year, the provincial police chief, Julasirim Kasim, was killed in an ambush by Abu Sayyaf militants in the village of Kulasi in Maimbung town in Sulu. (With a report from Nickee Butlangan)