Suspected Muslim extremists planted a homemade bomb in a southern Philippine town to disrupt Independence Day celebrations early yesterday, killing a bomb disposal expert who was trying to defuse the device, an army commander said.
A soldier and a police officer controlling the crowds were injured in the blast.
Local residents found the bomb inside a black plastic bag at the gate of the Plaza Rizal in Jolo town close to a popular restaurant and alerted the authorities who sent an army bomb squad to defuse it.
Brigadier-General Gabriel Habacon, head of an anti-terrorist task force in Jolo, said intelligence reports indicated the Muslim extremist Abu Sayyaf group planned to set off a bomb during the town's Independence Day celebrations.
The reports prompted authorities to transfer the celebrations from the plaza to the municipal hall compound. The bomb, fashioned from an 81-mm mortar shell, is similar to those manufactured by Muslim separatists and the Abu Sayyaf, which is active in Jolo, military spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Daniel Lucero said.
He said the bomb was "probably remote controlled."
Witnesses said a sergeant from the bomb disposal team was cutting wires attached to the device when it exploded. His body parts were strewn across the street.
Shrapnel hit an air force soldier and a police officer who were trying keep onlookers away from the site, the witnesses said.
The airman was flown to a military hospital in the nearby port city of Zamboanga and the police officer was taken to a local hospital, Lucero said.
Doctors said the two men were under observation. The airman suffered chest wounds and the police officer was hit in the head, they said.
Earlier this month, a suspected Abu Sayyaf member was arrested with bomb-making materials, including 81-mm mortar shells.
Naval intelligence agents arrested the suspect, Alzhezar Jila, following a tip-off from an informant who claimed the Abu Sayyaf planned to bomb a ferry between Jolo and Zamboanga.
The Abu Sayyaf has been blamed for several bomb attacks. The group also has claimed that it bombed a ferry off Manila that caught fire after an explosion on Feb. 27, killing more than 100 people.
Police have arrested the alleged ferry bomber, but investigators have found no forensic evidence backing the guerrillas' claim.
Jolo is about 950km south of Manila.
Kehinde Sanni spends his days smoothing out dents and repainting scratched bumpers in a modest autobody shop in Lagos. He has never left Nigeria, yet he speaks glowingly of Burkina Faso military leader Ibrahim Traore. “Nigeria needs someone like Ibrahim Traore of Burkina Faso. He is doing well for his country,” Sanni said. His admiration is shaped by a steady stream of viral videos, memes and social media posts — many misleading or outright false — portraying Traore as a fearless reformer who defied Western powers and reclaimed his country’s dignity. The Burkinabe strongman swept into power following a coup in September 2022
‘FRAGMENTING’: British politics have for a long time been dominated by the Labor Party and the Tories, but polls suggest that Reform now poses a significant challenge Hard-right upstarts Reform UK snatched a parliamentary seat from British Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s Labor Party yesterday in local elections that dealt a blow to the UK’s two establishment parties. Reform, led by anti-immigrant firebrand Nigel Farage, won the by-election in Runcorn and Helsby in northwest England by just six votes, as it picked up gains in other localities, including one mayoralty. The group’s strong showing continues momentum it built up at last year’s general election and appears to confirm a trend that the UK is entering an era of multi-party politics. “For the movement, for the party it’s a very, very big
ENTERTAINMENT: Rio officials have a history of organizing massive concerts on Copacabana Beach, with Madonna’s show drawing about 1.6 million fans last year Lady Gaga on Saturday night gave a free concert in front of 2 million fans who poured onto Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro for the biggest show of her career. “Tonight, we’re making history... Thank you for making history with me,” Lady Gaga told a screaming crowd. The Mother Monster, as she is known, started the show at about 10:10pm local time with her 2011 song Bloody Mary. Cries of joy rose from the tightly packed fans who sang and danced shoulder-to-shoulder on the vast stretch of sand. Concert organizers said 2.1 million people attended the show. Lady Gaga
SUPPORT: The Australian prime minister promised to back Kyiv against Russia’s invasion, saying: ‘That’s my government’s position. It was yesterday. It still is’ Left-leaning Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese yesterday basked in his landslide election win, promising a “disciplined, orderly” government to confront cost-of-living pain and tariff turmoil. People clapped as the 62-year-old and his fiancee, Jodie Haydon, who visited his old inner Sydney haunt, Cafe Italia, surrounded by a crowd of jostling photographers and journalists. Albanese’s Labor Party is on course to win at least 83 seats in the 150-member parliament, partial results showed. Opposition leader Peter Dutton’s conservative Liberal-National coalition had just 38 seats, and other parties 12. Another 17 seats were still in doubt. “We will be a disciplined, orderly
RSS