Prayers after Philippines church blast kills 4, injures dozens

Originally published in Worthy News

Christians urged prayers after the Islamic State group claimed responsibility for a bomb blast at a church service in the southern Philippines that killed at least four people and injured dozens.

The bomb went off Sunday during Catholic mass in a gymnasium at Mindanao State University in southern Marawi City, officials confirmed.

Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. said “foreign terrorists” were responsible, apparently referring to Islamic State, condemned as an Islamist terrorist organization by the Philippines and its allies.

“The soldiers of the caliphate detonated an explosive device on a large gathering of Christians…in the city of Marawi,” Islamic State said on social media.

“I condemn in the strongest possible terms the senseless and most heinous acts perpetrated by foreign terrorists upon the Mindanao State University,” President Marcos stressed in a reaction. “Extremists who wield violence against the innocent will always be regarded as enemies to our society,” he warned.

The military confirmed that the blast killed four people, including three women. At least 50 others were brought to two hospitals for treatment. Six of the wounded were fighting for their lives in a hospital, added Governor Mamintal Adiong Jr of the Islamic province of Lanao del Sur, of which Marawi is the capital.

Army troops and police cordoned off the university shortly after the bombing and began an investigation. Security checkpoints were set up around the city while police and other state forces were also under “heightened alert” in metropolitan Manila, security officials said.

Police Luitenant General Emmanuel Peralta told reporters that military and police bomb experts “found fragments of a 60mm mortar round” at the scene of the attack. Such explosives fashioned from mortar rounds had been used in past attacks by Islamic militants in the country’s south, according to experts.

Barnabas Aid, a Christian aid group supporting believers in the region, told Worthy News that it had urged Christians to “pray for comfort for the bereaved and ask for healing for worshippers injured in Sunday’s attack. Pray that any future plans by the men of violence are thwarted.”

It noted that Marawi on Mindanao island is “one of the largest Muslim cities in the Christian-majority Philippines,” a mainly Catholic nation. In 2017, it was reportedly besieged by Islamic State fighters for five months, during which time churches were destroyed and Christians held hostage.

The United States, an ally of the Philippines, said it was closely monitoring the situation. “The U.S. condemns in the strongest terms the horrific terrorist attack that occurred today during a Catholic service being held at Mindanao State University in Marawi, the Philippines,” US State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said in a statement.

“We mourn those killed in the attack, and our thoughts are with the injured. The United States is in close contact with our Philippine partners and stands with the people of the Philippines in rejecting this act of violence.”

The bombing underscored broader concerns about the southern Philippines, the homeland of minority Muslims, and the scene of decades-old separatist rebellions.

The Philippine Coast Guard said it ordered all its personnel to intensify intelligence gathering, stricter inspections of passenger ferries, and the deployment of bomb-sniffing dogs and sea marshals.

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