MANILA, Philippines — The Armed Forces of the Philippines Tuesday launched airstrikes on two Sulu towns where Abu Sayyaf members were sighted following President Rodrigo Duterte's order to crush the terror group.
A report by GMA News said that one airstrike was unleashed on Patikul and the other on Indanan.
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A "24 Oras" news report, meanwhile, showed footage of the Philippine Army's Alpha Battery 8th Field Artillery Battalion firing a canon at an area where the Abu Sayyaf is located.
"We are utilizing all the military or AFP might against sa pagtugis nitong mga Abu Sayyaf... Wala namang ano ito e. Yung intensity as intense as before," Brigadier General Divino Rey Pabayo, commander of Joint Task Force Sulu, said.
'All-out war'
On Monday, Duterte ordered the military to crush the Abu Sayyaf which is believed to be behind the twin bombings that hit the Cathedral of Our Lady of Mount Carmel in Jolo, Sulu.
"I order you now, pulpugin niyo ang Abu Sayyaf by whatever means," Duterte said during his visit to military and police forces at the headquarters of the Philippine Army's 11th Infantry Division at Barangay Bus-bus in Jolo, Sulu.
Presidential spokesperson Salvador Panelo confirmed Tuesday that Duterte has declared an all-out war against terror groups after he visited the blast site in Jolo.
"He just said all-out war, maybe against the perpetrators and for that matter all enemies of state in the region," Panelo said.
Suspected bomber identified
The twin blasts in Jolo on Sunday killed at least 21 people who were mostly churchgoers attending mass as well as responding troops and a Coast Guard personnel. Meanwhile, 100 others were wounded, latest data from the Western Mindanao Command showed on Tuesday.
Jolo is a base of the Abu Sayyaf, which is blamed for deadly bombings, including an attack on a ferry in Manila Bay in 2004 that claimed 116 lives in the country's deadliest terror assault.
The terror group is a loose network of militants formed in the 1990s with seed money from Osama bin Laden's Al-Qaeda network and has earned millions of dollars from banditry and kidnappings-for-ransom, often targetting foreigners.
It is among armed groups based in the strife-torn region of Mindanao, some of whose members have pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group.
Jolo also lies in the proposed Bangsamoro Muslim-majority autonomous region, which local voters overwhelmingly approved last week. Voters decisively approved a more powerful autonomous region in Mindanao, which is hoped will bring peace and development after decades of fighting that have killed thousands and mired the area in poverty.
The military said it is looking into a certain alias "Kamah," who it suspects as the bomber. "Kamah" is an alleged bombmaker and is the brother of slain Abu Sayyaf sub-leader Surakah Ingog. — Mikas Matsuzawa with Agence France-Presse