Philippines names pro-Islamic State militants as suspects in Catholic Mass blast that killed 4 people
- The suspects, Kadapi Mimbesa and Arsani Membisa, both have outstanding arrest warrants for crimes such as murder and kidnapping
- Islamic State claimed responsibility for the blast, saying one of its members detonated the bomb that killed 4 people during a Catholic Mass on Sunday
Philippine police named two Filipino members of a pro-Islamic State militant group on Wednesday as suspects in the deadly bombing of a Catholic mass in the country’s insurgency-plagued south.
Four people were killed and 50 were wounded in Sunday’s attack on worshippers gathered inside a university gym in Marawi, the country’s largest Muslim city, which was besieged by militants in 2017.
Islamic State claimed the bombing, which President Ferdinand Marcos Jnr blamed on “foreign terrorists”.
Police said previously they were chasing four men in connection with the assault, which the military has described as a possible revenge attack for their operations against militant groups in the region.
We are mobilising all our resources to ensure the perpetrators are put behind bars so they could answer [to] the crimes they have committed
The two suspects – Kadapi Mimbesa and Arsani Membisa – belonged to the Dawlah Islamiyah-Maute group, police regional director Brigadier General Allan Nobleza told a news conference.
A third man, still unidentified, acted as a lookout for the attackers, Nobleza said.
