DM Monitoring
MANILA: Twin blasts including a suicide bombing killed 15 people and wounded 75 others on a restive southern Philippine island on Monday, among them security forces and civilians, with Islamist militants suspected of being behind the attack. The bombs went off within an hour of each other in the main town on Jolo island, a stronghold of Abu Sayyaf, an Islamic State-linked group that has intensified its campaign in recent years through the use of suicide bombers.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for what was the biggest attack of its kind in the southern Philippines since January 2019, when a double suicide bombing at a Jolo church killed more than 20 people and wounded over 100. The military said the first blast happened around noon on Monday, when a homemade bomb in a motorcycle was triggered close to two parked army trucks, killing soldiers and civilians. As police and army surveyed the scene, a suicide bomber tried to breach a cordon and detonated her device, killing herself and several others.
In total, eight members of the security forces, six civilians and the bomber were killed and 27 security personnel and 48 civilians were wounded.
