Nephew of rocket attack survivor mayor killed in ambush

February 17, 2026 | 5:24pm

COTABATO CITY, Philippines — Gunmen killed in an ambush on Tuesday morning, February 17, the nephew of the mayor of Shariff Aguak, whose vehicle was shot with a B40 anti-tank rocket and assault rifles last month by three ambushers, which went viral on Facebook and in mainstream media.

Local executives and officials of the Maguindanao del Sur Provincial Police Office told reporters at noon Tuesday that the ambush fatality, Datu Murshid, is the son of the older brother of Shariff Aguak Mayor Datu Akmad Ampatuan Sr.

Datu Murshid and his uncle, Datu Yasser, who is a younger brother of the mayor, and a companion, Lemon Angkad Bangen, were in a black Nissan Livina, on their way somewhere, when they were attacked by gunmen at a stretch of a highway in Sitio Panang at the border of Barangays Kabengi and Salbu in Datu Saudi Ampatuan, Maguindanao del Sur.

Datu Yasser and Bangen were both wounded in the incident, now confined to a hospital, according to officials of the Datu Saudi Ampatuan Municipal Police Station.

Their assailants managed to escape before responding policemen and soldiers from a nearby roadside detachment could reach the scene.

Ampatuan, who survived four attacks by ambushers in recent years, is certain that the atrocity that left his nephew dead is related to last month’s attempt by three gunmen, one of them armed with a B40 rocket launcher, to kill him in a daring attack in the center of Shariff Aguak last January.

Ampatuan, elected mayor of Shariff Aguak during the May 12, 2025 elections, and his security escorts were together then in a bullet-proof sports utility vehicle that one of the three men, positioned at an intersection at a busy area in Shariff Aguak, targeted with a B40 anti-tank rocket. The vehicle was slightly damaged by the rocket blast.

The mayor survived the attack unscathed. Two of his security escorts sustained superficial wounds caused by the rocket explosion.

The three gunmen, who managed to escape amid the commotion triggered by the incident, were all killed in a brief clash by pursuing soldiers and policemen in a secluded area in Datu Unsay town in Maguindanao del Sur.

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