Duterte’s security team hurt in roadside blast

MANILA: A roadside bomb in southern Philippines yesterday wounded seven members of the president’s security team, a day ahead of his planned visit to an area gripped by intense fighting between Islamist militants and government troops.

Rodrigo Duterte said he would defy his advisers and still go to Butig town today, despite the bombing that hit his security staff and also wounded two soldiers.

“The truck carrying the president’s security detail was hit by an improvised explosive device. There was no firefight,” said Defence Secretary Delfin Lorenzana.

The men injured in Lanao del Sur province were airlifted to safety. Members of the president’s official media team were also in the convoy, but were unharmed.

Some 40 militants from the Maute Group, which has pledged allegiance to the Islamic State, were killed in an air-and-ground assault on an old municipal building they had occupied since Saturday, said military spokesman Colonel Edgard Arevalo.

Twenty soldiers were wounded in the fighting, which continued to rage on yesterday.

Lorenzana said he would advise the president to cancel his visit.

“It’s still not under control,” he said, adding that the military was trying to validate links between local groups and IS.

Duterte, known for ignoring his ministers and security experts, said he would still go and the situation was under control.

“The advice was to postpone. I said, ‘No, I will go there’. And, if possible, take the same route. Maybe, we can have a little gunfight here, gunfight there.” Reuters