MANILA – Nine women suspected of plotting to blow up military targets in restive southern Philippines have been arrested, said the army today.
Security forces detained the women and seized bomb-making equipment during raids on Friday of several homes on the Muslim-majority Jolo Island, a stronghold of the Islamic State-linked Abu Sayyaf group.
Most of the women are the daughters or widows of slain Abu Sayyaf fighters, and include several “potential suicide bombers”, said Maj Gen William Gonzales in a statement.
“This is how desperate the remaining terrorists are; willing to sacrifice their families just to get back at government forces.”
The women were monitored giving “financial or logistical support to their relatives” in Abu Sayyaf, First Lt Jerrica Manongdo told AFP.
They allegedly planned to attack soldiers with improvised explosive devices.
Three of the women are the daughters of the late Abu Sayyaf leader Hatib Hajan Sawadjaan, who was accused of planning a deadly attack on the Jolo cathedral in 2019 that saw 21 people killed.
Their arrest comes six months after a pair of female suicide bombers, including an Indonesian, blew themselves up in Jolo, killing 15 people and wounding 74 others.
It was the country’s deadliest attack last year.
Listed by the United States as a terrorist organisation, Abu Sayyaf is a loose network of Islamist militants blamed for the Philippines’ worst terror attacks and the kidnappings of foreign tourists and Christian missionaries. – AFP, February 23, 2021
