The most lethal weapon in the terrorist arsenal is not a gun but a human being who is not scared to die. At a military camp in Indanan, Sulu last Friday, two such persons managed to enter and set off explosives, killing themselves together with three soldiers and wounding at least 11 others.
Almost simultaneously, sniper fire and a mortar attack also hit the tactical command post of the 1st Army Brigade Combat Team in Barangay Kajatian at around noon, triggering a firefight that lasted about an hour, according to military dispatches from Sulu.
The island-province is a stronghold of both the Abu Sayyaf and a faction of the Moro National Liberation Front identified with founding chairman Nur Misuari. As the death toll rose to eight on Friday night, no group had claimed responsibility for the suicide bombing.
The attack prompted a heightened security alert in Metro Manila, which has been hit in previous years by bombings staged by the Abu Sayyaf together with foreign terrorists and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front before the separatists forged a peace agreement with the government. The Abu Sayyaf later teamed up with the Maute group, which is linked to the foreign terrorist Islamic State, to lay siege to Marawi for five months in 2017.
The country has long grappled with separatist extremism and brutal banditry in Mindanao, with the problem periodically spilling over into Metro Manila. For the most part, however, homegrown extremists have preferred to commit homicide rather than suicide in furtherance of their objectives. The twin suicide bombings in Sulu take the threat of deadly violence to a more dangerous level.
Reports said one of the bombers blew himself up as he was being accosted by military sentinels. The other bomber reportedly set off his explosive near the parking area assigned to the Army combat team commander.
Suicide attacks require deep commitment to a cause, no matter how twisted. That cause must be addressed decisively if the state wants to prevent more people from turning themselves into weapons of mass destruction. Addressing the cause starts with identifying the suicide bombers and their cohorts in the latest attack in Sulu, and giving the victims justice.