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Among the dead were soldiers and civilians. The explosions occurred in a city square and near a cathedral attacked by a suicide bombing last year.
By Jason Gutierrez
MANILA – Two heavy explosions erupted Monday in densely populated spaces on an island in the southern Philippines, killing at least nine other people in a stronghold known to the extremist organization Abu Sayyaf.
“There was a loud explosion” around noon near the town square on Jolo Island, said Captain Rex Payot, spokesman for the joint police-military task force against terrorism.
According to initial police and army reports, at least five infantry soldiers and four civilians were killed in the explosion, which occurred when infantry soldiers helped the local municipal government carry out Covid-19’s humanitarian efforts.
Shortly thereafter, an explosion at the moment hit near Notre-Dame Cathedral on Mount Carmel, there were no immediate reports of casualties from the explosion. Earlier last year, a suicide bombing in the same cathedral killed at least 23 other people as the faithful piled up for Sunday Mass.
No one took charge without delay of the explosions. But Jolo, in the Sulu archipelago in the far south of the country, has long been a busy territory and a hotbed of militant activities.
Abu Sayyaf, who has pledged allegiance to the Islamic State organization, has been divided into several factions, one of which is led by Hatib Hajan Sawadjaan, the identified leader of the Islamic State organization in the southern Philippines. Sawadjaa claimed his duty for the Notre-Dame du Mont Carmel suicide bombing last year.
Mindanao’s Western Military Command said in an internal report noted through the New York Times that the first explosion occurred outdoors in the Food Plaza paradise in a town called The Walled City in downtown Jolo. An initial investigation was known to him as an improvised explosive device attached to a motorcycle. The explosion destroyed two army vehicles.
“Based on the first discoveries, a burnt motorcycle was noticed in the area,” the army said. “This may be the vehicle used by the suspect.”
General Manuel Abu, leader of the police in bangsamoro Autonomous Region in the Mindanao Muslim region, which includes Jolo, said the first explosion probably intended to lure the government into the area.
“The moment the explosion occurred in the face of the first explosion,” he said. “Initially, we sent our bomb experts to investigate,” he said. Then, the moment the explosion occurred.
Jolo province data leader Sonny Abbing told a local radio station: “I approached the site when I heard a loud bang and saw the police and staff fall.”
Jolo’s mayor, Kerkhar Tan, issued a closing order after the explosions.
Philippine coastguards in southwest Mindanao, as well as in the Sulu, Tawi-tawi, Basilan and Zamboanga regions, were put on high alert after the explosions, according to local reports.
Earlier this month, Philippine troops captured five suspected Abu Sayyaf militants running under the direction of Abu Sayyaf’s bomb expert, Mundi Sawadjaan, in Jolo. He escaped, but army officers said they believed the organization was looking for imaginable targets.
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