Duterte’s bodyguards ambushed in southern Philippines on eve of president’s trip

Seven military bodyguards of President Rodrigo Duterte and two other soldiers were wounded yesterday in an ambush by suspected Islamic militants on the eve of his planned visit to the southern Philippines, the military and president said.

Military spokesmen said a bomb hit the soldiers’ convoy as it drove on a road in a southern ­region where an armed group which had pledged allegiance to Islamic State (IS) operate, wounding nine.

“My advance party was ­ambushed a while ago. The Presidential Security Group was hit by an IED (improvised explosive ­device),” Duterte said in a speech during a visit to a northern ­Philippines military camp.

“But I’m going there. The ­advice was to postpone [the trip], but I said no. We are taking the same route if possible,” Duterte added without explaining the purpose of his trip. “Maybe we can have a little gunfight here, gunfight there,” he added.

The convoy that was attacked in Marawi city also included local troops as well as staff members of the presidential communications office, military officials said, adding that there were no civilians wounded.

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

The planned Duterte visit came days after the military began operations against dozens of armed members of the Maute group holed up in an abandoned government building in the mainly Muslim rural town of Butig on Mindanao island.