Suicide bomber killed at Philippine army base

Soldiers stand guard on a road as they are deployed to remote villages in Jolo, Sulu southern Philippines October 17, 2014.Al Qaeda-linked Islamist militants in the Philippines holding two Germans said on Friday they had received some of the ransom they had been demanding and would not kill one of the Germans as they had threatened to.The hostages, captured by militants of the Abu Sayyaf group in April from a yacht on the high seas, are being held in the interior of the remote island of Jolo, 600 miles (960 km) south of Manila. REUTERS/Stringer (PHILIPPINES - Tags: CIVIL UNREST CRIME LAW POLITICS)

A suicide bomber dressed in a traditional Muslim woman’s gown died after detonating a bomb outside a military camp in the restive southern Philippines, but no other casualties were reported, authorities said.

Suicide attacks were once very rare in the Philippines, but since July 2018 there have been four, including the latest explosion on Jolo island on Sunday.

The Islamic State claimed responsibility for all three previous suicide attacks, which experts have previously told AFP is a worrying escalation of extremism in the Philippines under the group’s influence.

According to a military statement, the attacker on Sunday was “foreign looking”, wore an abaya gown and appeared to be a woman. However, authorities had not confirmed the attacker’s gender.

No group has yet claimed the attack, which came a day after an IS-claimed bombing wounded eight at a market on the island of Mindanao.

Separatist groups in the Christian-majority nation’s south have waged decades-long insurgencies that have killed thousands.

This weekend’s attacks cast a shadow over a step toward a measure of peace in the region. The largest Muslim rebel group, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, began to lay down its weapons on Saturday.

While the MILF has brokered peace with the government, other more extreme factions like jihadist group Abu Sayyaf continue to stage deadly attacks.

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