A Week of Bombings in Mindanao: Making Sense of It All

A Week of Bombings in Mindanao: Making Sense of It All: "A spate of bombings rocked the southern Philippines over the past six days. The attacks have been clearly pinned on the Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG) and Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) operatives and should be seen as both an attempt to distract the attention of the security forces from their ongoing offensive in Jolo and as payback for the arrest of Dulmatin’s – the top JI operative in the Philippines – wife on 3 October.

1. The Attacks:
Ten people were killed and over 40 were wounded in a string of bombings across Mindanao and Jolo. In all, four bombs went off and three were defused. The first bomb went off in a crowded marketplace in Makilala, North Cotabato, and killed eight. The bomb was a cell phone-detonated 81-mm mortar round. A second bomb, hidden inside a black backpack, was defused in front of the Makilala municipal hall. That was followed by a bomb of a similar design in Tacurong, Sultan Kudarat. It was also placed in a market and killed two. A bomb twice as large was placed in front of the new shopping mall in Cotabato City, but failed to detonate, an apparent malfunction in its cell phone-detonator. On Sunday, three people were wounded when a bomb went off at a police camp in Jolo. That same day a bomb was defused in a crowded market in Padian, Zamboanga del Sur. That bomb was fairly sophisticated and one press report described it as made of “ammunition from a rocket-propelled grenade, 60-mm. mortar, and 40-mm. and M203 plastic pipe with TNT flakes, one kilo of mixed TNT flakes with ammonium nitrate, blasting caps, and an alarm clock in a backpack.” An M79 grenade went off in the marketplace, but there were no casualties as the police had cleared the area."

(Via The Counterterrorism Blog.)