Authorities said fifteen people died while 75 were injured in the Jolo twin blasts in Sulu province, Monday, August 24.
Among the casualties are seven soldiers, six civilians, one police officer, and the “suicide bomber,” government forces said.
The first bomb, which was planted in a motorcycle, exploded before noon yesterday. After an hour, the second blast was reported just a hundred meters away when a soldier approached a woman wearing suspiciously swollen clothing.
An owner of the pharmacy on Serrantes Street in Jolo said, “Flesh, bones were scattered on the streets, mostly uniformed personnel.”
“I guess they [belong to the Philippine] Army. There were Badjao vendors and children on that street. There were food stall vendors, too,” she added. “We are really afraid.”
“It was a deafening sound,” the pharmacy owner described the first explosion that rocked Barangay Walled City.
“We immediately closed our shop. Upon reaching home, the ground shook [when] another explosion [occurred], just near the first one,” she said.
The first bomb exploded at 11:54 am beside Paradise Food Shop.
Authorities found nearby an almost charred motorbike where the improvised bomb was reportedly planted. The KM450 military truck was parked near the motorcycle and the food shop.
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Malacañang, meanwhile, denounced the Jolo twin blasts “in the strongest possible terms.”
“We likewise condole with the families and loved ones of those who died in these tragic incidents,” Presidential spokesperson Harry Roque said.
According to Maj. Gen. Corleto Vinluan Jr., chief of the Western Mindanao Command (Westmincom), the suspect behind the Jolo twin blasts was the same person the Army intelligence officers in Jolo is pursuing before several Jolo cops killed them on June 29.
The slain soldiers were on a mission and going after the two suicide bombers when they were gunned down, Vinluan said. They were Maj. Marvin Indammog, Capt. Irwin Managuelod, Cpl. Abdal Asula and Sgt. Jaime Velasco, members of the 9th Intelligence Service Unit of the Army’s 11th Infantry Division.
“Their target was the suicide bombers, plus Mundi Sawadjaan,” Vinluan said, describing the bomb maker as an Abu Sayyaf leader.