Islamic militants blamed for Philippines bombings
Burned motorcycle is pictured in the aftermath of an explosion in Jolo Island, Sulu province, Philippines on Monday. in this picture obtained from social media.
The Philippine army chief said on Tuesday bombings that killed at least 15 people and wounded 75 more in the country’s worst extremist attack this year were triggered by two suicide bombers.
Military officials initially said the first of two powerful explosions that rocked Jolo town in the southern province of Sulu on Monday was caused by a bomb rigged to a motorcycle. The second blast was a woman suicide bomber.
Army commanding general Cirilito Sobejana, however, said an initial investigation, along with witness accounts and security camera footage, showed that the first explosion was also set off by a suicide attacker.
“It’s been validated,” Sobejana said.
The military is trying to determine if the two suicide bombers were the widows of Abu Sayyaf Islamic militants Talha Jumsah and Norman Lasuca, Sobejana said.
Jumsah, known by his nom de guerre Abu Talha, was a little-known but key commander who linked the Abu Sayyaf with the Islamic State group and plotted suicide attacks before he was killed by troops last year. Lasuca died in a suicide attack on a Sulu army camp last year.
The country’s southern region has seen decades of Muslim separatist unrest in the largely Catholic nation.
The bombings on Monday were the latest suicide attacks in the predominantly Muslim province of Jolo, including the deadly January 2019 bombing of a Catholic cathedral believed to have been carried out by an Indonesian couple.
Most of the victims on Monday, including children, were caught in the first blast, near two parked army trucks in front of a grocery store and computer shop in a downtown plaza where the cathedral is located.
The second blast involved the attacker blowing up near a group of soldiers and police, killing one soldier and one police commando and wounding several others.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but the military blamed an Abu Sayyaf militant commander, Mundi Sawadjaan, who has been linked to suicide bombings in recent years in Sulu.
Military officials said last week that Sawadjaan had plotted bombings in Sulu using two female suicide attackers. Army troops were carrying out a covert operation to locate and capture Sawadjaan and the suicide bombers in June when four soldiers were stopped at a Jolo police checkpoint and later shot dead by a group of police.
The army angrily described the killings as deliberate and demanded murder charges be filed against nine police officers. Officials said it may have been a mistaken encounter. President Rodrigo Duterte intervened and discouraged any retaliation.
The military has been fighting Abu Sayyaf, a small group listed by the United States and the Philippines as terrorists for years.
