Jolo twin bombings in southern Philippines kills 10 people
Two powerful explosions ripped through heavily populated areas of a southern Philippine island on Monday, killing at least 11 people and wounding 43 others in a known stronghold of the extremist group Abu Sayyaf.
At least 10 people have been killed and several others were wounded after two explosions, including one reportedly carried out by a female suicide bomber, struck the southern Philippine town of Jolo, according to authorities.
“There was a heavy explosion” around noon near the town plaza on Jolo Island, said Capt. Rex Payot, a spokesman of the joint police-military antiterrorism task force.
Police and military reports said soldiers and civilians were killed instantly in the first blast, which occurred as army personnel were assisting local municipal officials in carrying out Covid-19 humanitarian efforts.
Not long after, a second explosion hit near the Cathedral of Our Lady of Mount Carmel. Early last year, a suicide bombing at the same cathedral killed at least 23 people just as worshipers were gathering for Sunday Mass.
As authorities were cordoning off the area, a second explosion reportedly carried out by a female suicide bomber hit, killing one person, Lieutenant General Corleto Vinluan said, according to news reports. If confirmed, it is only the fourth known suicide attack in the country.
At least 17 government troops were injured in the two attacks.
Mayor Kherkar Tan of Jolo said that, in total, at least six soldiers, one police officer and four civilians were killed in the blasts on Monday. At least 18 soldiers, six officers and 19 civilians were also injured.
No one immediately took responsibility for the explosions. But Jolo, in the Sulu Archipelago in the nation’s far south, has long been considered occupied territory and a hotbed of militant activity.
Abu Sayyaf, which has pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group, has split into several factions, one of which is led by Hatib Hajan Sawadjaan, the acknowledged leader of the local Islamic State group in the southern Philippines. Mr. Sawadjaa claimed responsibility for the suicide bombing of Our Lady of Mount Carmel last year.
The military’s Western Mindanao Command said in an internal report seen by The New York Times that the first explosion occurred in front of the Paradise Food Plaza in a village called Walled City in downtown Jolo. An initial investigation identified it as an improvised explosive device rigged to a motorcycle. The blast damaged two military vehicles.
Gen. Manuel Abu, head of the police in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, which includes Jolo, said the first blast was probably meant to draw the authorities to the area.
“The second explosion occurred in front of the first blast site,” he said. “Initially, we sent our bomb experts to investigate,” he said. Then, the second blast hit.
Jolo’s provincial information officer, Sonny Abbing, told a local radio station, “I was near the site when I heard a loud explosion and saw some of police and personnel fell.”
The mayor of Jolo, Kerkhar Tan, issued a lockdown order in the wake of the blasts. The Philippine Coast Guard in Southwestern Mindanao, as well as in the areas of Sulu, Tawi-tawi, Basilan and Zamboanga, was placed on high alert after the blasts, according to local news reports.
In a statement, Philippine police chief Gen Archie Francisco Gamboa said he has ordered an investigation into the deadly incident, adding that all perpetrators should be held accountable for the crime.
This month, Philippine troops captured five suspected Abu Sayyaf militants working under the bomb expert Mundi Sawadjaan in Jolo. He escaped, but military officials said they believed that the group had been scouting for possible targets.
Sulu is known as the stronghold of the Abu Sayyaf Group, an armed group that has allied itself with ISIL (ISIS).
Abu Sayyaf has long been battling for independence in the southern region of Mindanao, which they regard as their ancestral homeland dating back to the pre-Spanish colonial period.
Security forces in Sulu were investigating the possibility that the wanted bomb maker, who is accused of orchestrating the suicide bombing of the church last year, was behind the explosions on Monday, said Maj. Gen. Corleto Vinluan Jr. of the Western Mindanao Command.
