Dozens of people killed and wounded in two simultaneous bombings during Sunday’s mass at a cathedral in Sulu’s capital town of Jolo in southern Philippines, reports said.
The first bomb went off inside the Our Lady of Mount Carmel and a second blast occurred just as people were rushing out of the church. Among the fatalities were soldiers and civilians.
The aftermath of August 2012 Abu Sayyaf bombing of a Catholic church in Jolo town in the southern Philippines. (Mindanao Examiner Library Photos – Nickee Butlangan)
Reports said over a dozen were killed in the twin attacks and that dozens more had been wounded in the bombings. No individual or group claimed responsibility for the bombings of the cathedral which is located at the heart of Jolo.
The deadly attacks occurred barely a week after local residents and their leaders voted to reject the controversial Bangsamoro Organic Law or BOL in a referendum January 21 and demanded not to be included in the new Muslim autonomous under the rule of the rebel group Moro Islamic Liberation Front or MILF.
It was unclear how the improvised explosives were smuggled inside the church or how it managed to pass through police and military checkpoints.
The bombings happened despite an extended martial rule in the whole of southern Philippines, and the attacks only showed how poor the security was in the capital town. On New Year’s Eve, an improvised explosive also went off outside the South Seas Mall in Cotabato City – which also rejected the BOL – and left dozens of casualties. A member of the MILF – tagged as a Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighter – linked to the attack was arrested by authorities during President Rodrigo Duterte’s visit to Cotabato to campaign for the BOL ratification ahead of the plebiscite. His family denied all the accusation against him.
There were no immediate statement from the police or military, and the mayor of Jolo, Kerkhar Tan, also did not issue a statement on the bombings. The latest attack in Jolo was not the first time for Catholic churches in the predominantly Muslim province. In August 2013, a grenade explosion outside the cathedral wounded two civilians. And in the previous year, another fragmentation grenade exploded at the cathedral’s roof.
Previous attacks on churches were largely blamed by the authorities to the Abu Sayyaf, a small but the most notorious among rebel groups operating in the troubled region.
In December 2010, Abu Sayyaf militants bombed another church inside the police base in Jolo and killing at least six worshipers. The militants scaled the church wall undetected under cover of darkness and planted the bomb and waited the next morning before detonating the powerful explosive during a mass.
Two people were also killed and 17 others wounded when militants also detonated a huge bomb planted outside the cathedral in July 2009. A second bomb was found near the church and had been disarmed by Filipino and US troops helping the military fight terrorism.
https://mindanaoexaminer.com/twin-bombings-at-jolo-cathedral-leaves-dozens-of-casualties/
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