Sulu attack bares new ‘juramentados’

MANILA, Philippines — The suicide bombings that targeted an Army camp in Indanan, Sulu last month could have been perpetrated by a new breed of Abu Sayyaf bandits, Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana said yesterday.

Lorenzana believed that the perpetrators of the attack on the headquarters of the First Brigade Combat Team were highly radicalized young Muslims.

“During the American occupation, local Muslim fighters known as ‘juramentados’ launched suicide attacks against the US forces in Mindanao,” he said.

“Filipino Muslims are not capable of carrying suicide bombings. But if you go back to history during the American occupation between 1901 and 1915, juramentados assaulted the Americans,” he added.

Lorenzana, however, said they could only confirm if the slain attacker was a Filipino once the DNA sample from the remains of the bomber matched that of a woman who claimed to be his mother.

Investigators were also working on a DNA sample from the remains of the other attacker, whom Armed Forces Western Mindanao Command chief Lt. Gen. Cirilito Sobejana said could be the son of the Moroccan attacker in another suicide bombing incident in Lamitan, Basilan in July last year.

Sobejana identified one of the  suicide bombers  as 23-year-old Norman Lasuca.

Lasuca’s dismembered body was identified by a woman known only as Vivian, who claimed to be his mother.

“We are still trying to determine the veracity of that claim by matching the DNA samples of the bomber and that of his supposed mother,” Lorenzana said.

The twin blasts that rocked the Army camp on June 28 left three soldiers and three civilians dead and scores wounded.

A senior security official backed Lorenzana’s theory that the Abu Sayyaf could be employing “juramentado” tactics in fighting government forces in Sulu.