One of 2 Sulu bombers identified by own mother

ZAMBOANGA CITY –– One of the two bombers, who attacked a military camp in Indanan, Sulu Friday has been identified by no less than his mother, according to Lt. Gen. Cirilito Sobejana, commander of the Western Mindanao Command.

Sobejana said a mother and her son went to the headquarters of the Joint Task Force Sulu on Monday afternoon to secure what remained of the bodies of two bombers.

“The mother was able to identify the body through the recovered head,” Sobejana said.

The bomber was identified as Norman Lasuka, 23, a resident of Asturias, Jolo.

Based on the account of his mother, Lasuka had gone missing since 2014, according to Sobejana.

After Friday’s bombing, some people told Lasuka’s mother that one of the unclaimed bodies under military custody resembled her son, hence their visit at the camp last Monday.

Lasuka’s mother revealed that her son finished only elementary school, said Sobejana.

The military released the remains of Lasuka after getting DNA samples from his mother and brother so the necessary burial rites could ensue, according to Sobejana.

Lasuka was the bomber, who blew off while being inspected by the camp’s gate guards, killing all three soldiers who accosted him outside the gate of the newly activated Battalion Combat Team in Barangay Kajatian, Indanan.

The second bomber was suspected to be a Moroccan national, one of the two sons of a Moroccan bomber who died in the Lamitan blast last July 31, 2018.

Sobejana said the second bomber could be around 15 years old.

“We don’t have the identities of these Moroccans. Intelligence report during my stint in Sulu said this Moroccan father left his two kids under the care of Sawadjaans. They were 9 and 11 years old then,” Sobejana added.

Sobejana said the military was still investigating the how the bomb carriers delivered and died in the process before pointing to the attack as suicide bombing.

“The first one could be (suicide bombing), but no one can give a statement because our three soldiers and the bomber himself, died in the blast. The second, he was already neutralized when the bomb went off on his body, so there was someone remotely observing and triggering,” Sobejana explained. (Editor: Leti Z. Boniol)