Bombs Kill at Least a Dozen People, Wound Scores in Philippines

Updated at 9:47 a.m. ET on 2020-08-24

Two powerful bomb blasts believed to be set off by Islamic State-linked militants, including one detonated by a female suicide bomber, killed at least 14 people and wounded scores more – many of them civilians – on Jolo Island in the southern Philippines on Monday, authorities said.

The bombings in Jolo, a hotbed of the pro-IS Abu Sayyaf Group, were the deadliest to strike the capital of Sulu province since a double-suicide attack left at least 23 people dead at a local church in January last year.

Monday’s blasts killed six civilians, seven soldiers and a police commando, while 75 other people – including at least 48 civilians, 21 soldiers and six police officers – were injured, according to the latest update figures from the military’s Western Mindanao Command.

“We together with our counterparts are still determining the details of the explosion through a post-blast investigation,” said Maj. Gen. Edgard Arevalo, the spokesman for the military.

“At the moment, our troops on the ground are evacuating and providing treatment for the casualties while securing the area,” he said.

A witness, Rex Enojo, said he was loading a truck with crates of food when the first blast occurred.

“I fell to the ground and stayed there for several minutes,” Enojo, 28, told BenarNews. When he stood up, he said, he saw the carnage – bodies on the ground and windows of nearby stores shattered.

“There were four bodies I saw lying outside a fast food shop and people were running,” he said, adding that as soon as he started running, he heard a second explosion.

He said he went back in time to see a wounded police commando and civilians being carried away.

The first improvised explosive device was rigged to a parked motorcycle, which exploded in front of the Paradise Food Plaza in a village called Walled City at 11:53 a.m., according to a military report.

The first blast took place along Serrantes Street, close to a military truck, officials said.

Moments later, a second blast went off meters away, on the other side of the street. A woman suicide bomber is believed to have carried out the second bombing.

After the first bomb rigged to the motorcycle went off, a woman tried to get close to the commotion, said Lt. Col. Ronaldo Mateo, spokesman for the Philippine Army’s 11th Infantry Division.

“A female suicide bomber detonated herself as a soldier stopped her from entering the cordoned off area,” Mateo said, adding that the identity and nationality of the alleged suicide bomber was still being determined.

The attacks were most likely the work of Mundi Sawadjaan, a suspected Abu Sayyaf bomb-maker who was the target of a manhunt by the military in recent weeks, according to Mateo.

The Army’s 11th Infantry Division as well as the Joint Task Force Sulu has since placed Jolo under lockdown, the military said.

“We advise the public to stay calm but be vigilant to monitor and report any suspicious persons or items or unusual activities in the area,” Arevalo said.

In Manila on Monday evening (local time), the presidential palace said that authorities were investigating to identify the “individuals of groups behind these dastardly attacks.”

“We condemn in the strongest possible terms the explosion incidents in Jolo, Sulu today, which left scores dead and wounded, including soldiers,” presidential spokesman Harry Roque said in a statement.

Mundi Sawadjaan is believed to be a nephew of Hatib Hajan Sawadjaan, the leader of the Philippine branch of the Islamic State (IS) terror group, who took over that role after Isnilon Hapilon was killed during fighting with government forces at the end of a five-month siege by militants in southern Marawi city in 2017.

Philippine authorities blamed Hatib Hajan Sawadjaan for orchestrating a twin suicide bombing by an Indonesian couple that killed nearly two dozen people at a church in Jolo in January 2019.

In June 2020, the military said that four members of an intelligence unit were on the trail of Abu Sayyaf suicide bombers in the area, when they were killed in an apparent misencounter with the police. Early this month, five suspected associates of Mundi Sawadjaan were caught allegedly plotting attacks in Jolo, but the mastermind bomber eluded arrest.

Maj. Gen. Corleto Vinluan, the regional military commander, said Monday’s attack was planned and carried out to take advantage of the military being distracted as it helped the government in efforts to contain the coronavirus pandemic.

“He is the only one capable of executing such attacks,” Vinluan said of Mundi Sawadjaan.

In Manila, Vice President Leni Robredo also condemned the attack while the country was dealing with COVID-19.

“This attack is even more horrific in the context of the pandemic, when the imperative is to pull together to address the damage already wrought on our health, economy, and way of life. To kill in such a manner, in these times, regardless of motivation, is inhuman,” she said in a statement.

Froilan Gallardo and Richel V. Umel, and Jeoffrey Maitem and Mark Navales, contributed to this report from Cagayan de Oro city and Cotabato City, Philippines.