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The Philippines
AsiaSoutheast Asia

Twin bombs in Philippines kill at least 14, blamed on Islamic State-linked rebels

  • A bomb attached to a motorcycle exploded an hour before a female suicide bomber blew herself up, in the country’s deadliest attacks this year
  • There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but the military blamed an Abu Sayyaf militant commander, Mundi Sawadjaan

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Soldiers at the site of an explosion in the town of Jolo, Sulu province, southern Philippines on Monday. The attacks have been blamed on Islamic militants. Photo: AP
Associated Press
Muslim militants allied with Islamic State set off a powerful motorcycle explosive followed by a suicide bombing that together killed 14 people on Monday, many of them soldiers, in the worst extremist attack in the Philippines this year, military officials said.
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At least 75 soldiers, police and civilians were wounded in the midday bombings in Jolo town in southern Sulu province, regional military commander Lieutenant General Corleto Vinluan said. The bombings were staged as the government grapples with the highest number of coronavirus infections in Southeast Asia.

Vinluan said most of the victims, including children, were killed and wounded in the first attack, when a bomb attached to a motorcycle exploded near two parked army trucks in front of a grocery store and computer shop in Jolo.

“It was a vehicle-borne improvised explosive device which exploded while our soldiers were on a marketing run,” Vinluan told reporters.

A second blast, apparently from a female suicide attacker, occurred about an hour later and killed the bomber, a soldier, a police commando and wounded several others, a military report said. The suspected bomber walked out of a snack shop, approached soldiers who were securing a Roman Catholic cathedral and “suddenly blew herself up”.

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