12 dead in Philippines political ambush ahead of vote

ILIGAN: Twelve people were killed in an ambush on a Philippines mayor, officials said Friday, in the deadliest of a string of violent incidents that have marred the campaign for May elections.

Gunmen opened fire on a truck carrying Mayor Abdulmalik Manamparan and his supporters on southern Mindanao island late Thursday, local military commander Colonel Ricardo Jalad said, with his relatives among the victims.

"They killed my granddaughter," Manamparan told from his hospital bed, where the 62-year-old official was being treated for a shrapnel wound that grazed his head. Another seven people were injured in the attack.

Jalad said a daughter of the mayor was also among the dozen people killed, though the wounded official was apparently unaware of this.

The ambush on a remote mountain road near Nunungan town, unleashed as the mayor and his party travelled home from a campaign event, was the latest episode of political violence in a country that will hold elections on May 13.