ZAMBOANGA (Updated) -- Two alleged suicide bombers, not a grenade-throwing assailant, rushed one after the other into a military camp in Indanan, Sulu at around noon Friday, June 28, 2019, and detonated the bombs they were carrying, killing themselves and three soldiers.
Nine soldiers were also wounded in the attack on the Army's 1st Brigade Combat Team headquarters in Sitio Tanjung in Kajatian, Indanan.
All units under the Joint Task Force Sulu were immediately placed on red alert and ordered “to enact preemptive measures.” Troops from the 1st Scout Ranger Battalion and 6th Mechanized Battalion reinforced the 1st Brigade Combat Team.
Checkpoints were set up and a roving patrol was immediately implemented in Jolo, the capital of Sulu.
The Sulu Police Provincial Office said the two alleged suicide bombers barged into the military camp and blew themselves up shortly before noon Friday. Body parts were recovered inside the camp.
Police did not say whether the attackers were members of the notorious Sulu-based Abu Sayyaf Group.
One of the attackers detonated the bomb he was carrying near the parking area of the 1st Brigade Combat Team commander.
A firefight ensued as the bomb explosions were followed by mortar and sniper fires from the companions of the two suicide bombers. The gunfight lasted about an hour.
The identities of the slain suicide bombers and soldiers as well as the nine wounded soldiers were not immediately available.
An initial report from the Western Mindanao Command, through spokesperson Major Arvin Encinas, said a grenade had exploded and killed three soldiers and a child.
The Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) deployed the 1st Brigade Combat Team to Sulu on May 31, 2019. (With Third Anne Peralta-Malonzo/SunStar Philippines)