{"id":31042,"date":"2019-01-29T15:23:55","date_gmt":"2019-01-29T15:23:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=31042"},"modified":"2019-01-29T15:23:55","modified_gmt":"2019-01-29T15:23:55","slug":"duterte-blames-abu-sayyaf-suicide-bombers-for-jolo-attack","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=31042","title":{"rendered":"Duterte blames Abu Sayyaf ‘suicide bombers’ for Jolo attack"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte<\/a> has blamed two suicide bombers from the armed Abu Sayyaf<\/a> group, for carrying a deadly attack inside a Catholic church in the southern island of Jolo.<\/p>\n

“Yes, we are sure of that. Nobody… but nobody can perpetuate that kind of terrorism thereabouts in that area. I have no doubt,” Duterte told reporters in the capital, Manila, on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

He said a husband and wife team of suicide bombers carried out Sunday’s twin bombings, contradicting reports by the military that said that a woman had placed a bag of explosives in one of the church pews before fleeing from the scene.<\/p>\n

“That is what the military told me, and that is what the police relayed to me. And I am guided by what the government workers would tell me,” Duterte said in a mix of Filipino and English.<\/p>\n

On Tuesday, another victim of the attack died in the hospital, taking the death toll to 21.<\/p>\n

In an earlier statement issued by the presidential palace, Duterte was quoted as ordering the military to “destroy” the Abu Sayyaf “by whatever means”.<\/p>\n

The island of Jolo has long been known as a domain of the Abu Sayyaf fighters, who in recent years have pledged allegiance to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL<\/a>, also known as ISIS) group.<\/p>\n

The Abu Sayyaf has not issued a statement on the incident, but the ISIL claimed on its website that it was responsible for the attack.<\/p>\n

On Tuesday, the military pleaded with residents of Jolo to help authorities track down the suspects of the bombing.<\/p>\n

“If you see someone doing wrong, you should turn them in to (the) authorities,” said Colonel Gerry Besana, a regional military spokesman.<\/p>\n

“But people don’t, maybe because they are relatives, or they also benefit from the crimes.”<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Colonel Noel Detoyato, chief of the military’s public affairs office, released security footage showing four suspects near the church shortly before the attack.<\/p>\n

He said the authorities are looking for a total of six “persons of interest”, including a female suspect.<\/p>\n

One of the men in the footage, wearing a blue-green jacket, was identified as Kamah, brother of slain Abu Sayyaf leader Surakah Ingog.<\/p>\n

Kamah was believed to have been holding a mobile phone that was used to trigger the bombs, Besana said.<\/p>\n

Security forces have received intelligence reports of a possible bomb attack against churches in Jolo and nearby areas since August 2018, said Defence Secretary Delfin Lorenzana.<\/p>\n

“Since then, the Jolo cathedral was guarded by soldiers 24 hours a day,” he said.<\/p>\n

“We will never know how the bombers got in or near the church as the soldiers guarding the main door all died.”<\/p>\n

The twin bombings were the worst attack in the Philippines<\/a> in recent years.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

\n SOURCE:
\n Al Jazeera and news agencies<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has blamed two suicide bombers from the armed Abu Sayyaf group, for carrying a deadly attack inside a Catholic church in the southern island of Jolo. “Yes, we are sure of that. Nobody… but nobody can perpetuate that kind of terrorism thereabouts in that area. I have no doubt,” Duterte told…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":31043,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-31042","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-middle_east_news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31042","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=31042"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31042\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/31043"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=31042"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=31042"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=31042"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}