[Gulf Today] A senior Philippine cabinet official said that intelligence agents “are 80 percent sure” that a Moroccan national with links to the ISIS-inspired Abu Sayyaf terrorists was responsible for the deadly bomb explosion that killed 11 people including himself on the island province of Basilan on July 31. Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana cited the testimonies of two witnesses as well as militiamen who told investigators that the driver of the van packed with improvised explosives was “foreign looking” and could not speak the local language. Lorenzana also said that intelligence agents secured a photo of a “foreign-looking” person believed to be a Moroccan national from their sources in Basilan’s neighboring island of Sulu where the Abu Sayyaf operates, who was labelled as a “martyr” with his head encircled. But he insisted that Abu Sayyaf militants were behind the attack and were targeting about 4,000 schoolchildren who were to participate in a parade in Lamitan City on July 31.
He said, “We suspect that the guy was trying to bring his van to a plaza in Lamitan where about 4,000 schoolchildren were to participate in a parade after completing a nutrition program sponsored by the Department of Education.”
Based on intelligence reports, Lorenzana added that the Moroccan, he did not identify, tried but failed to recruit Moro youths willing to undertake “suicide-bombing missions” for the Abu Sayyaf, who gained notority for a spate of kidnap-for-ransom cases that been marred by the beheading of their foreign and Filipino hostages.
Lorenzana said the Moroccan was driving a passenger van when it developed engine trouble before reaching a checkpoint manned by soldiers and militiamen in a village in Lamitan. The driver used sign language in seeking help to move the van because he apparently did not speak the local language. Several militiamen, who responded to his call for help became suspicious when they saw “containers with wirings” inside the van and reported this to the soldiers, he said.