BARMM Chief Minister condemns Sulu suicide bombings 4 days later

COTABATO CITY – The Chief Minister of the Bangsamoro autonomous region has condemned the twin suicide bombings in the southern Sulu province four days after the terror attacks killed and wounded dozens of people.

“It was a senseless act of terror since the attack inflicted multiple casualties and injuries to innocent civilians. We condemn that act as contrary to cherished human values such as the sanctity and protection of lives, properties and peaceful living,” said Ahod Ebrahim, also the leader Moro Islamic Liberation Front, whose group had previously embarked on a terror campaign in the troubled region prior to its peace talks with Manila.

Ebrahim, who was appointed by President Rodrigo Duterte in February as interim Chief Minister of the newly-formed Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao following the ratification of the Bangsamoro Organic Law.

He said he was “personally” outrage by the suicide attacks on a military base in the town of Indanan on June 28. “As your leader in the Bangsamoro, I am committed to assist our law enforcement agencies in pursuing the perpetrators of this atrocious incident and similar violence over the past few months in the province of Sulu,” Ebrahim said and urged local leaders to be united in the fight against violent armed groups in their respective places.

“Even as we seek justice for the victims, let us take this sad moment to reiterate our resolve to do whatever is necessary and possible so that real and sustainable peace can be achieved in the Bangsamoro. We condole with the families of the victims, and we are one with them in the search for justice and an end to this kind of violence,” he said.

Police said the bombers were Abu Sayyaf fighters and had been initially identified only by their aliases Black and Norman, who simultaneously detonated their explosive belts while base sentinels were about to search them.

Five soldiers were among those killed in the bombings that also wounded a dozen more. Eight civilian casualties were also reported by the police. The mangled bodies of the bombers, including a decapitated head, were also recovered from the scene and brought to the military headquarters in the capital town of Jolo and recently handed over to their families.

One of the bombers was said to be the son of a Moroccan man, Abu Katheer al-Maghribi, an ISIS soldier who was killed in a suicide attack at an army checkpoint in August 2018 in Lamitan City in the Muslim province of Basilan that left over a dozen casualties.

The other bomber, police said, previously surrendered to the military, but it was unknown what drove him to re-join his group. The Islamic State has claimed responsibility for the twin suicide attacks which occurred during an extended martial rule in the region where security forces are battling several pro-ISIS groups and communist insurgency. (Mindanao Examiner and Zamboanga Post)

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