ZCZC
BFF-46
PHILIPPINES-UNREST-BOMB
‘Suicide bomber’ among Philippines blast suspects: Duterte
MANILA, Jan 29, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – A male suicide bomber and his wife
carried out a Catholic cathedral attack that killed 21 people in the
country’s restive south, Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte said Tuesday.
Duterte told reporters a woman who remains at large left a device that
exploded during mass at the cathedral in the remote Muslim-majority island of
Jolo on Sunday, and her husband later blew himself up outside.
The president’s account differed from earlier statements by security
officials.
He said military intelligence told him Tuesday the second bomb was
strapped on to the body of the male suspect who detonated it as survivors of
the first explosion ran for their lives.
“They (investigators) could not find any part of the body because it
exploded, because that was terrorism and that was a suicide,” the president
said.
If Duterte’s account is confirmed it would be among the few suspected
cases of suicide bombings in the Philippines.
The Islamic State group has claimed responsibility for the cathedral
blast, saying two suicide bombers detonated explosive belts, according to the
SITE Intelligence Group which monitors jihadist activities.
Duterte said the Jolo attack was carried out by the Abu Sayyaf, a kidnap-
for-ransom group that has also been blamed for the Philippines’ deadliest
attacks and some of whose factions have declared support for the Islamic
State.
“We are sure of that,” he said.
Security officials said earlier Tuesday that a group affiliated with the
Abu Sayyaf carried out the cathedral attack with two explosive devices, one
left behind by a woman inside the church and the other hidden on a motorcycle
outside.
Duterte said the woman wore a necklace “with a large cross” pendant, like
a Catholic worshipper, which he suggested was the likely reason she was not
intercepted.
“It’s not the norm in this country to frisk a woman inside the church,”
the president said, adding he has ordered the military to “go into a punitive
action” against the Abu Sayyaf. The Jolo attack was carried out days after
voters overwhelmingly approved expanding Muslim self-rule in the south aimed
at ending a decades-old rebellion for independence or autonomy for the
sizeable Islamic minority of the mainly Catholic nation.
The church attack came despite Duterte putting the southern Philippines
under martial rule after pro-IS militants seized the southern city of Marawi
in May 2017.
Abu Sayyaf, which is based on Jolo island, has been blamed for the
Philippines’ deadliest attack, a 2004 ferry bombing in Manila Bay that
claimed 116 lives.
BSS/AFP/FI/1840 hrs