ALL-WOMEN ‘FAMILY TRADE’
Terrorists and suicide bombers in skirts are the new grim challenge to those trying to roll back the resurgence of extremism in the South.
THE recent arrest of nine women would-be suicide bombers following a military sweep in Sulu province has exposed a “disturbing” possibility that the Islamic State (IS) and its local fronts, collectively known as Daulah Islamiyah (DI), have turned to widows and other “orphans of war” in their recruitment in a bid to bolster their terror campaign in Mindanao and elsewhere.
Post-operation investigations revealed that all of the women are close relatives, either by affinity or consanguinity, while some are widows of key leaders and members of the Islamic State and the Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG) killed in the relentless counterterrorism operations in the province.
Few male takers
“THEY are already using widows, wives because they are having difficulty in recruiting male suicide bombers, and it is harder to identify and detect female suicide bombers. So they are using women now,” said Armed Forces Western Mindanao Command (Westmincom) commander Lt. Gen. Corleto Vinluan Jr.
The tagging of the nine women as “suicide bombers in-the-making” indicates that the radicalization espoused and persistently being pushed by the IS in Mindanao right after its defeat in Marawi City almost four years ago has already seeped among some Moro women.
During the court-warranted raids in Sulu, the operating teams bagged Elena Tasum Sawadjaanabun, 40; Linda Darun Maruji, 66; Firdauzia Said, Risa Jalil and Sharifa Rajani in Barangay Bangkal in the municipality of Patikul.
Sawadjaan-abun is a daughter of Hatib Hajan Sawadjaan, a commander of the ASG in Sulu who became the leader of the IS in Mindanao right after the death of Isnilon Hapilon, the “emir” of the IS in Southeast Asia, during the war in Marawi City. Sawadjaan was killed in Patikul, Sulu, in July last year by soldiers.
Abun is a widow of ASG subleader Walid Abun.
Maruji, who goes by the alias Appuh Yayang, is a sister of Sawadjaan, while Said is a widow of ASG sub-leader Mannul Said. On the other hand, Jalil is the wife of ASG member Nasser Sawadjaan Hadjail, a nephew of Sawadjaan. Rajani is a wife of ASG member Mukti.
According to Vinluan, seized from the women were components and ingredients for homemade bombs that included suspected ammonium nitrate fuel oil (Anfo), a battery with snap switch, an electric blasting cap, a detonating cord, a GI pipe and nearly 200 pieces of one-inch concrete nails.
Anfo is the same ingredient of the bomb that an Indonesian couple carried and used during their suicide attack on the Jolo Cathedral in Sulu in January 2019 that killed at least 21 people and wounded more than 100 others.
The attack, which was owned by the IS, was carried out with the group of Sawadjaan, whose nephew, Mundi Sawadjaan, is a subleader of the ASG, also in Sulu. Mundi was identified among the architects of the twin suicide bombings.
A second raid, this time at Zone 3 in Barangay Tulay, Jolo, led to the arrest of Nudzha Ismani Aslun, 26, who was initially reported as a widow of ASG member Amirudin Dimakuta, alias Jabar, one of the followers of Mundi, and Nurshahada Isnain, 19, wife of another ASG member, also under the group of Mundi.
Dimakuta surfaced and surrendered on Wednesday to soldiers. During a debriefing, he told authorities that he had been with the group of Sawadjaan since 2013 and joined the group of ASG subleader Ben Wagas when Sawadjaan died.
According to Vinluan, the operating team recovered suspected Anfo, a push button switch, a battery, electric blasting cap, detonating cord, GI pipe, a grenade and 340 pieces of one-inch concrete nail, a booklet entitled “Jihad Fil Sabilillaah,” several identification cards and a rough sketch of a terror plan.
A search warrant covering the third raid was also carried out on a target in the town of Indanan, but the suspects eluded arrest.
Another raid in Barangay Bangkal in Patikul led to the apprehension of the two daughters of Sawadjaan: Isara Jalmaani Abduhajan, 36; and Jedah Abduhajanamin, 28. Vinluan said they also yielded similar bomb components that were seized in the earlier three raids, including 265 pieces of one-inch concrete nails.
‘Indoctrination’ process
“WE have been monitoring and guarding them [the nine women] for a long time, and when a subleader of the ASG reported to us that homemade bombs were being made and assembled in those houses, the operations were conducted,” Vinluan said.
The military commander in Western Mindanao said the manufacture and assembly of the homemade bombs were carried out while the widows are being indoctrinated to be suicide bombers.
Whoever is the widow that would be indoctrinated, “it is her who would be the suicide bomber,” Vinluan said.
When Norman Lasuca carried out a suicide bombing on the camp of the Army’s First Brigade Combat in Indanan in July 2019 just a month into the brigade’s deployment for counterterrorism operations in Sulu, military officials right away theorized he could not be the last local suicide bomber.
Lasuca, the first Filipino on record to die in a suicide bombing, was radicalized while with the group of Sawadjaan. The radicalization of some Moro extremists or terrorists was a feat that the IS achieved, and something that the al-qaeda and even the Jemaah Islamiyah failed to do during their active presence in the country.
Getting bolder
THE radicalization of members of local extremist groups prompted then Lt. Gen. Cirilito Sobejana, who later became the Army chief— and now, the chief of staff of the Armed Forces of the Philippines— to declare that local terrorists are now bolder and potent, as he cited the case of Lasuca.
Less than a year later, or in August 2020, two women carried out two suicide bombings around the plaza of Jolo, killing at least 14 people and wounding more than 70 others.
Vinluan said two widows of ASG members carried out the twin suicide bombings. The death missions confirmed that the movement for radicalization and the recruitment of suicide bombers has shifted focus on orphans of war.
He said the IS and the DI are working to persuade relatives of terrorist members who have been killed to sacrifice themselves, “especially the widows and the direct relatives of slain leaders.”
Why women?
WESTMINCOM spokesman Lt. Col. Alaric Avelino delos Santos said they see three reasons why the IS and its local fronts, especially the ASG, have focused their recruitment on women as suicide bombers.
“First is the cultural sensitivity. The ASG knows that because of cultural sensitivity, we have not been frisking [Moro] women and they knew that men are considerate [or lenient] with women,” he said.
“Second, the ASG is playing on the emotions of the widows, daughters and relatives of notorious ASG leaders and members…they could be easily exploited because of their hard feelings over the death of their husbands who are notorious terrorists,” delos Santos explained.
The regional military spokesman said the ASG is also capitalizing on the gender equality factor, thinking along the lines that “if men can do it, women can also do it, too.”
Delos Santos conceded, “We could not just dismiss the capability of women.”
In order to stop the recruitment of potential suicide bombers, the military’s Joint Task Force Sulu under its commander Major General William Gonzales has been working with the provincial government of Sulu and religious leaders in the province to address the radicalization of Moros.
The effort is being undertaken through various programs under the “Preventing and Countering Violent Extremism (PCVE),” which is paired with the Provincial Task Force to End Local Armed Conflict under Governor Abdusakur M. Tan.
“Salient in the PCVE program is the deradicalization of perceived individuals or groups of individuals to become a productive citizen with right religious perspective, teachings and understanding of Islam,” delos Santos said.