Authorities not ruling out the involvement of Daesh-linked Abu Sayyaf militants
Monitoring desk
INDANAN
An attack on a special Philippine army counter-terrorism unit left three soldiers dead and nine others wounded in the southern Philippines on Friday, military spokesmen and witnesses told AFP.
The authorities said they were not ruling out the involvement of Abu Sayyaf militants in the noontime attack on the island of Jolo, a stronghold of the Daesh-linked rebel group.
“We’re not discounting the possibility that it’s the handiwork of Abu Sayyaf Group,” regional military spokesman Major Arvin Arcinas told reporters after the attack on the unit’s temporary headquarters.
The Philippines has renewed its campaign against the militants on Jolo this year after at least one suspected suicide bomber attacked the island’s Roman Catholic cathedral, killing 21 people.
Friday’s blast blew the roof off the sentry gate of the military camp and blackened its concrete walls, according to photographs of the aftermath of the attack on local television.
“It was a bomb and a firefight,” army spokesman Col. Ramon Zagala told AFP earlier.
“This attack is meant to disrupt the intensified security operations and our operational tempo following series of recent operational gains in the area,” Zagala later said in a statement.
An AFP reporter on the scene saw a blood-soaked man slumped beside a motor tricycle on a street also stained with blood in front of the temporary headquarters of the army’s 1,500-member First Brigade Combat Team.
Arcinas said three army members were killed in Friday’s attack, with nine other soldiers wounded.
He could not say what kind of explosives were used.
Jolo and other remote areas of the southern Philippines are home to numerous armed groups including the Abu Sayyaf, which is notorious for kidnappings and bombings.
The militants, who demand large ransoms and have beheaded several hostages, have pledged allegiance to the Daesh group.
The army deployed the specially trained unit in the Jolo town of Indanan four weeks ago.
In the same week, a Dutch birdwatcher held for years by the Abu Sayyaf was killed on Jolo during a firefight between his kidnappers and soldiers sent to rescue him.
