1 killed, 2 injured in Maguindanao grenade attack blamed on family feud

COTABATO CITY, Philippines—A 14-year-old boy was killed and two other persons  seriously injured when unidentified men sprayed with bullets and then fired a rocket-propelled grenade into a house in Barira, Maguindanao, around 4 a.m. Saturday, the military said.

Colonel Prudencio Asto, 6th Infantry Division public affairs office chief, said Bataga Gampong died of multiple shrapnel wounds sustained in the attack, which he said was suspected to be an offshoot of a “rido” or feud between families or clans.

Two other members of the Gampong family, Omar and Wahid, were injured in the incident and were being treated at a government hospital here.

Feuds, from simple spats to disputes over land, are among the serious causes of violence in Maguindanao and other parts of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.

In 2009, 32 journalists and media workers caught in the middle of a political feud between the Ampatuan and Mangudadatu families were slaughtered, along with several family members and supporters of Esmail Mangudadatu, now the governor of Maguindanao.