Philippines arrests Indonesian woman suspected of planning suicide bomb attack

SULU-(MaraviPost)-The Joint Task Force operating in the southern Philippines arrested Indonesian woman suspected of planning a suicide bomb attack on Saturday, October 10, 2020 in a pre-dawn raid

The commander of the 11th Infantry Division Brigadier General William Gonzales confirmed the news in a statement.

Gonzales said the arrest comes after a long pursuit of foreign terrorist suicide bombers in Sulu following the twin bombing of Jolo town in August that claimed 15 lives and 74 others escaped with various degrees of injuries.

AFP reported that the woman who has been identified as Rezky Fantasya Rullie was first on the list of suspects planning a suicide bombing since the military group received intelligence reports.

She is believed to be the widow of an Indonesian who was killed in Sulu in August and the daughter of two suicide bombers who killed 21 people in an attack that was blamed on a group linked to Abu Sayyaf on a Catholic cathedral in Jolo early last year.

Rullie was arrested alongside two other women who are married to members of Abu Sayyaf.

Abu Sayyaf has been blamed for some of the Philippines’ worst bombings, as well as for the kidnapping of foreign tourists and Christian missionaries and on saturday a vest rigged with pipe bombs was seized along with other improvised explosive device components from the Jolo island house owned by an Abu Sayyaf leader.

Angella Semu

I hold a Bachelor of science degree in Agriculture Development Communication that I obtained from Lilongwe University of Agriculture and Natural Resources. I previously worked with The Nation Publications Limited since 2018 before joining The Maravi post particularly on Agriculture Desk as an intern before I became a correspondent. Currently I am reporting for The Maravi Post mainly in International News and locally in the Southern region of Malawi.