KIDAPAWAN CITY – An improvised explosive went off Sunday evening in Sultan Kudarat’s Isulan town – the second bombing in 5 days – leaving many civilians injured.
The latest explosion occurred in downtown Isulan near shops and it was unclear how the bomber managed to smuggle the device. Other reports said the bomb was left inside an Internet shop and that 2 persons were killed in the blast that wounded 15 others. The injured were rushed to hospital.
No individual or group claimed responsibility for the bombing, but this occurred after a motorcycle, laden with explosives, went off evening of August 28 in downtown Isulan and killed 3 people and wounded at least 35 others with the Islamic State claiming responsibility for the blast.
The daring attacks also timed while the whole region is under martial rule. The Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters or BIFF whose leaders have pledged allegiance to the Islamic State also claimed responsibility for the motorcycle bombing.
The BIFF, whose members were mostly former Moro Islamic Liberation Front fighters, is one of several pro-IS militant groups fighting for the establishment of a caliphate on Mindanao.
Security forces have been fighting militant groups in the southern region the past years. The blast occurred following President Rodrigo Duterte’s order to the armed forces to crush terrorism.
In July this year, a Moroccan ISIS soldier Abu Katheer al Maghribi, exploded his van filled with explosives in Lamitan City in the volatile Muslim province of Basilan, several nautical miles south of Zamboanga. The Islamic State claimed responsibility for the July 31 suicide attack that left over a dozen casualties.
In a post on its Amaq News Agency, the Islamic State said a Moroccan man carried out the daring assault against Filipino soldiers and identified the executor of the suicide bombing as Abu Katheer al Maghribi. “A martyrdom attack leads to 15 Filipino soldiers being killed in the city of Lamitan on the island of Basilan in the southern Philippines,” it said.
Philippine authorities said 12 people were killed when a car bomb exploded at a security checkpoint after government militias stopped the suspicious vehicle in Bulanting village, about 2 kilometers away from downtown Lamitan. The province is also a known stronghold of the militant group Abu Sayyaf whose leaders also pledged allegiance to the Islamic State.
Several foreign fighters had been killed in clashes with soldiers in Basilan in recent years. The military earlier urged the public to be on alert and stay vigilant at all times following attempts by pro-ISIS militants to bomb civilian targets in the restive southern region. (Mindanao Examiner. With a report from Rhoderick Beñez.)
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