An Abu Sayyaf militant leader accused of plotting a suicide attack in a Roman Catholic cathedral in the southern Philippines might be harboring a foreign would-be suicide bomber in his jungle base, a senior official said on Thursday.
Philippine Secretary of the Interior and Local Government Eduardo Ano said Abu Sayyaf commander Hatib Hajan Sawadjaan, who allegedly plotted the Jan. 27 attack at Our Lady of Mount Carmel Cathedral on Jolo island that killed 23 people, was also behind a suicide attack last year that killed 11 people in nearby Basilan province.
Sawadjaan’s goal was to assert his new role as Islamic State group leader in the southern Philippines, Ano said.
The Jolo attack, allegedly carried out by two Indonesian suicide bombers, has renewed terrorism fears across the Philippines.
The national police have been placed on full alert and security has been strengthened in churches, shopping malls and other public areas.
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has ordered troops to destroy the Abu Sayyaf, leading to a renewed military offensive in the south that has included sporadic air strikes and gunbattles.
Ano said in an interview that government forces have received intelligence about the presence of an Arabic man in Sawadjaan’s camp in the jungles of Sulu province’s Patikul town, and are taking steps to capture him along with Sawadjaan and his men.
“We’re watching this man because he’s also a trained bomber and a [would-be] suicide bomber,” Ano said.
He said the militant could be a Yemeni or an Egyptian national, and has married a local villager.
Ano, a former military chief of staff who as interior secretary supervises the national police, provided more details about Sawadjaan, a low-key Muslim insurgent in his 60s, who he said was recognized last year by the Islamic State group as its lead representative in the nation’s south, although the group also regards three other local militant factions as allies.
“The bombing of the cathedral and the bombing of Basilan were Sawadjaan’s moves to assert leadership,” Ano said.
Police have said that Abu Sayyaf staged the cathedral bombing to gain attention and possible funding from the Islamic State group.
In the July 31 last year Basilan attack, a militant believed to be of Moroccan descent was killed when drums of explosives exploded in a van he was driving.
Ten militia and villagers were also killed in the powerful blast, which wounded 11 others.
Police said the foreign militant had targeted a gathering of about 2,000 mostly students and teachers in Basilan’s Lamitan city, but his vehicle stalled and villagers whom he asked for help became suspicious when they saw wires protruding from plastic containers in the vehicle. The vehicle exploded as troops approached.
Ano said the militant, who used the nom de guerre Abu Kathir al-Maghrib, had stayed in Sawadjaan’s camp in Jolo before he traveled to Basilan.
Both the Basilan and Jolo attacks were delayed because of funding problems, he said.
“That Moroccan lived in the camp of Sawadjaan. He was seen by hostages,” Ano said.
An Indonesian militant who allegedly carried out the cathedral attack stayed in Sawadjaan’s stronghold and arranged for his wife to travel to Jolo to help carry out the bombing, Ano said.
The Jolo and Basilan bombs were made of similar explosives and most likely were assembled by a foreign militant, he said.
The Philippines would ask for the help of Indonesian authorities in identifying the two suicide attackers through their remains, he said.
Earlier this week, Police Director-General Oscar Albayalde said five suspected Abu Sayyaf militants who escorted the Indonesian couple around Jolo ahead of the bombing have been taken into custody, and charged with murder and attempted murder.
An endangered baby pygmy hippopotamus that shot to social media stardom in Thailand has become a lucrative source of income for her home zoo, quadrupling its ticket sales, the institution said Thursday. Moo Deng, whose name in Thai means “bouncy pork,” has drawn tens of thousands of visitors to Khao Kheow Open Zoo this month. The two-month-old pygmy hippo went viral on TikTok and Instagram for her cheeky antics, inspiring merchandise, memes and even craft tutorials on how to make crocheted or cake-based Moo Dengs at home. A zoo spokesperson said that ticket sales from the start of September to Wednesday reached almost
‘BARBAROUS ACTS’: The captain of the fishing vessel said that people in checkered clothes beat them with iron bars and that he fell unconscious for about an hour Ten Vietnamese fishers were violently robbed in the South China Sea, state media reported yesterday, with an official saying the attackers came from Chinese-flagged vessels. The men were reportedly beaten with iron bars and robbed of thousands of dollars of fish and equipment on Sunday off the Paracel Islands (Xisha Islands, 西沙群島), which Taiwan claims, as do Vietnam, China, Brunei, Malaysia and the Philippines. Vietnamese media did not identify the nationalities of the attackers, but Phung Ba Vuong, an official in central Quang Ngai province, told reporters: “They were Chinese, [the boats had] Chinese flags.” Four of the 10-man Vietnamese crew were rushed
Scientists yesterday announced a milestone in neurobiological research with the mapping of the entire brain of an adult fruit fly, a feat that might provide insight into the brains of other organisms and even people. The research detailed more than 50 million connections between more than 139,000 neurons — brain nerve cells — in the insect, a species whose scientific name is Drosophila melanogaster and is often used in neurobiological studies. The research sought to decipher how brains are wired and the signals underlying healthy brain functions. It could also pave the way for mapping the brains of other species. “You might
INSTABILITY: If Hezbollah do not respond to Israel’s killing of their leader then it must be assumed that they simply can not, an Middle Eastern analyst said Israel’s killing of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah leaves the group under huge pressure to deliver a resounding response to silence suspicions that the once seemingly invincible movement is a spent force, analysts said. Widely seen as the most powerful man in Lebanon before his death on Friday, Nasrallah was the face of Hezbollah and Israel’s arch-nemesis for more than 30 years. His group had gained an aura of invincibility for its part in forcing Israel to withdraw troops from southern Lebanon in 2000, waging a devastating 33-day-long war in 2006 against Israel and opening a “support front” in solidarity with Gaza since
RSS