The head of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) confirmed Monday, Dec. 4, that the military was not discounting the possible involvement of foreign terrorist groups to the explosion at a school gymnasium in Marawi City which killed at least four people.
General Romeo Brawner Jr., AFP Chief of Staff, said the military launched an investigation in cooperation with the Philippine National Police (PNP) to verify the reported link of Islamic State (IS) to the bomb attack at the Dimaporo Gymnasium during an Advent mass on Sunday, Dec. 3.
According to reports, the IS claimed responsibility for the Marawi blast through statements posted on their Telegram channels.
"Yes, we are not discounting that. We are looking at all aspects. We are looking at all the angles," said Brawner, who went to Marawi City to personally oversee the ongoing military operations in the area following the attack.
Brawner said that the Marawi blast was reminiscent of the 2017 Marawi siege, where pro-IS Maute Group (MG) and Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG) laid siege on the city and attempted to establish a caliphate or base of IS in Mindanao. More than 1,000 individuals were killed in the five-month-long siege, including civilians.
Brawner was one of the key military commanders during the siege as he served as the spokesperson and deputy commander of Task Force Ranao, a special unit created for the crisis response.
"Remember when the Marawi siege happened here, it was the Daulah Islamiyah Southeast Asia group that created [rumor] they were in control of what [was] happening here. Again, we are not disclaiming that possibility that there are links towards international ISIS group," he noted.
Meanwhile, Brawner also said that part of the investigation was to determine if the attack could be related to the ongoing war between Israel and Islamic militant group Hamas in the Middle East.
The military chief said he talked with local Muslim leaders in Marawi, security experts and analysts and they believe that the bomb attack was not related to Hamas' call for Muslim groups in the country to launch a "jihad" in support of its conflict with Israel.
"The local leaders here in Lanao del Sur were saying that conflict had happened in the past between Israel and terrorist groups in the Middle East but nothing happened here. They said that it is impossible that the attack [in Marawi] is related to the [Israel-Hamas] crisis but we are not discounting that. We are looking at all angles," Brawner said.
President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. blamed "foreign" terrorists for the bomb attack while Department of National Defense (DND) Secretary Gilberto Teodoro Jr. said there was a "strong indication" that a "foreign element" could be involved in the incident.