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| Southeast Asia |
| Manila says first Filipino ‘suicide bomber’ behind last month’s attack |
| 2019-07-11 |
| [ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] Philippine security forces confirmed Wednesday that at least one Filipino "jacket wallah" was behind a deadly attack last month, in a first for the Asian country. Norman Lasuca and one other yet to be identified suspect blew themselves up outside a military camp on the remote southern island of Jolo on June 28 in an attack that also killed three soldiers and two civilians, the police and military said. "We can now confirm... the incidence of the first suicide kaboom in the Philippines, perpetrated by a Filipino in the person of Norman Lasuca," military front man Brigadier General Edgard Arevalo told a news conference. The Jolo bombing marks a worrying escalation of militancy driven by the influence of the ISIS group in Southeast Asia, security experts earlier told AFP. A decades-old Death Eater insurgency in the southern Philippines has killed tens of thousands. But suicide kabooms have been used extremely rarely, with imported muscle blamed for the few that have been carried out. National police front man Bernard Banac described last month’s bombing as "a locally initiated attack organized by the Abu Sayyaf ...also known as al-Harakat al-Islamiyya, an Islamist terror group based in Jolo, Basilan and Zamboanga. Since its inception in the early 1990s, the group has carried out bombings, kidnappings, murders, head choppings, and extortion in their uniquely Islamic attempt to set up an independent Moslem province in the Philippines. Abu Sayyaf forces probably number less than 300 cadres. The group is closely allied with remnants of Indonesia's Jemaah Islamiya and has loose ties with MILF and MNLF who sometimes provide cannon fodder... group", a Jolo-based gang of murderous Moslems engaged in kidnappings and bombings. "The report as claimed by ISIS that they are the ones responsible for this is still up to validation and that remains to be seen," he told news hounds, referring to ISIS by an alternative name. Philippine authorities said the two suspected Jolo bombers’ remains were tested for DNA, and one matched that of Lasuca’s mother and brother, who are both Tausugs, the predominant Moslem ethnic group in Jolo. Experts are still attempting to identify the second bomber, Banac said. "Before, we only heard of IED (improvised bomb) attacks, remote-controlled attacks but this time an individual went kaboom!as a full-fledged suicide bomber," Arevalo said. "We (security forces) will have adjustments in techniques, tactics and procedures given this development," he said. "We consider this to be an isolated case," he added. However, there's more than one way to skin a cat... he acknowledged that "the security environment in our country has changed" and civilians should help the security forces combat the new threat. They must ensure prospective recruits "won’t be radicalized by terrorist groups (who are) only waiting for the right time and individual to bring to the road of extremism," he said. Arevalo said Lasuca’s mother described the son, in his early twenties, as a former "battered" child who endured beatings meted out by his father. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #8 dron you hit the nail on the head |
| Posted by: chris 2019-07-11 11:12 |
| #7 I think Woodrow, he meant that Duterte is smarter than to allow this rabid community such access. But that too, he's not. Duterte's Legacy Shot To Shit For all his inquisition on the drug trade, he ultimately fell prey to what every govt in the world seems to miscalculate on. The muslim community. Those who live off our benevolence, in their taqiya and under the radar while in their families, behind doors, their hatred seethes and waits for our blood. |
| Posted by: Dron66046 2019-07-11 10:08 |
| #6 Odd that he was named 'Norman', though. Maybe that was his birth name. That leaves the 'yet to be identified' person (Due to what? Being a large puzzle?). |
| Posted by: Mullah Richard 2019-07-11 10:00 |
| #5 YOLO in Jolo |
| Posted by: Frank G 2019-07-11 10:00 |
| #4 um, suicide bombers arent allowed in the Philippines, they smarter than that You must be kidding. If not, welcome to 101 basic Islamic jihad. |
| Posted by: Woodrow 2019-07-11 09:53 |
| #3 Why is ISIS not getting the Duterte treatment ? Have the subtle joys of an unsubtle presidency in a police state got to him ? |
| Posted by: Dron66046 2019-07-11 09:39 |
| #2 maybe the first suicide bomber but Islamic terrorists have been active in the Phillipines since at least 2000 Marxist terrorists were active for a decade before this |
| Posted by: lord garth 2019-07-11 09:07 |
| #1 um, suicide bombers arent allowed in the Philippines, they smarter than that |
| Posted by: 746 2019-07-11 00:44 |