17 wounded in 2 Jolo explosions
ZAMBOANGA CITY, Philippines—At least 17 people, including children and members of the elite Philippine National Police Special Action Force, were wounded in two separate explosions that hit the Sulu provincial police compound in Jolo town, officials said on Saturday.
Col. Allan Arrojado, commander of the Joint Task Group Sulu, said the first blast that injured several civilians took place around 7:30 p.m. on Thursday just outside a mosque inside Camp Kasim in Barangay Asturias and was caused by a grenade lobbed by a still unidentified man.
Arrojado said that a few minutes later, another explosion occurred near the site of the first blast, wounding several policemen, including an officer. The more powerful blast came from a homemade bomb.
The second blast was intended to target police who rushed to the scene, local authorities said.
“It seems the (first) explosion was set up to draw responders as the target,” provincial police chief Senior Superintendent Abraham Orbita told reporters.
Orbita said his team is trying to establish the identity of the perpetrators and the motives behind the bomb attacks.
He said all the victims suffered shrapnel injuries and were brought to two hospitals.
Interior Secretary Mar Roxas yesterday ordered the PNP to conduct a thorough investigation into the twin explosions, saying “the perpetrators will be persecuted to the fullest extent of law.”
“Our priority is to provide immediate medical treatment to those who were injured in the explosions,” Roxas said in a statement.
Rosalyn Aya-ay, a shopkeeper and policeman’s wife, said she found her husband sprawled on the ground after the first explosion and took him to the camp hospital, although he was not seriously injured.
“When I returned, I found my two daughters wounded by the second blast. I was scared and I had a hard time finding an ambulance to carry them,” she told AFP.
It was the second bomb attack on Camp Kasim since 2010, when a Christmas Day blast wounded six people worshipping at a Catholic church in another section of the facility.
Police investigators combed through the scene of the blast on Saturday, which was about 10 meters (33 feet) from a guarded entry gate, but would not say how the attackers had smuggled the explosives into the camp, according to an AFP photographer on the scene.
The families of policemen assigned to the camp also live inside the facility.
No group has claimed responsibility for the blast, but police suspect the Abu Sayyaf, a small group of a few hundred Islamic militants founded in the 1990s with seed money from al-Qaida.
Police last week killed a suspected Abu Sayyaf member allegedly involved in kidnappings in the eastern Malaysian state of Sabah, close to Sulu.
The group is still holding a Dutch birdwatcher who was seized three years ago. With reports from Julie Alipala, Inquirer Mindanao, Marlon Ramos, AFP and AP
