Philippines: Catholic Cathedral targeted in Zamboanga

ANS:

A crude but powerful bomb exploded outside Zamboanga's large modern metropolitan Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception at 4:20am on Sunday 13 April. While it caused no injuries, that was not the intention of the bombers. According to Zamboanga City police chief, Jonathan Perez, the bombers had intended to plant their two bombs inside the Cathedral and then detonate them during the 5 am Mass. (Link 1)

The insidious terror plot was foiled when the church caretaker noticed three men acting suspiciously and talking in a dialect spoken on the mainly-Muslim island of Jolo. He alerted the Cathedral's security guard, forcing the suspects to withdraw. Before fleeing on their motorbike the suspects planted one bomb under a parish vehicle parked in the church compound which they detonated by mobile phone once they were clear. The suspects got only about one kilometre down the road before police closed in on them. At that point they threw the other bomb towards nearby shops and detonated it.

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