Members of the group detonated a bomb.
Islamic State (IS) militants have claimed responsibility for a deadly bombing during a Catholic mass in the Philippines on Sunday, November 3, which killed at least four people and injured 50 others.
Reuters reports this.
The attack took place at a university gymnasium in Marawa, a city in the south of the country that was besieged by Islamist militants for five months in 2017.
The Islamic State group, which exerts influence in the south of the country, said on Telegram that its members detonated a bomb.
Earlier, before the Islamic State statement, Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. condemned the “senseless and heinous acts committed by foreign terrorists.” Police and military tightened security in the south of the country and around the capital Manila.
In Rome, Pope Francis prayed for the victims during his Sunday address and in a separate written message called on “Christ, the prince of peace, to give everyone the strength to turn away from violence and to overcome evil with good.”
Law enforcement operations to bring to justice those responsible for “terrorist activities” will “continue without ceasing,” Defense Minister Gilberto Teodoro said.
Debris from a 16mm mortar was found at the scene, senior police official Emmanuel Peralta said at a news conference.
The explosion in the provincial capital of Lanao del Sur Marawi came after a series of military operations against local Islamic State groups in the southern Philippines.
“It is quite possible that what happened this morning was a retaliatory attack,” said army chief Romeo Brauner.
The Maute Islamic group (also known as the Islamic State of Lanao), active in Muslim regions of the Philippines, seized Marawi in May 2017 in an attempt to make it a Southeast Asian “wilayet” – or governorate – for the Islamic State.
In the ensuing five-month battle, Islamist militants and Philippine troops killed more than a thousand people, including civilians.
“We unequivocally condemn in the strongest terms this senseless and heinous act,” Mindanao State University said in a statement.
The university said it was suspending classes until further notice.
Let us recall that the Philippines announced the end of five months of fighting in the southern city of Marawe (Philippines, Mindanao island) between the armed forces and militants loyal to the Islamic State (ID) in 20217. Then the Philippine army tried to get rid of the Maute rebels belonging to the Islamic State militants in the city of Marawi.
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