at least four dead in bomb attack during Catholic mass

At least four people were killed and around fifty others injured in a bomb attack during a Catholic mass in the southern Philippines on Sunday, December 3, authorities said. The explosion occurred during a mass in the gymnasium of Mindanao State University in Marawi, the country’s largest Muslim city.

The university condemned in a press release this “act of violence”declaring “solidarity” of his Christian community and the victims. Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos strongly condemned these “senseless and particularly heinous acts perpetrated by foreign terrorists”in a press release.

No group has officially claimed responsibility for the attack. A chief of staff of the armed forces said “to study” the possibility of an attack carried out by Islamist organizations in retaliation for a Philippine military operation, which killed 11 Islamist militants in Mindanao on Friday.

Militant attacks on buses, Catholic churches and public markets are characteristic of the unrest that has rocked the region for decades. In 2014, Manila signed a peace pact with the country’s largest rebel group, the Moro National Liberation Front. But there remain small bands of Muslim insurgents opposed to the peace deal, as well as communist rebels operating in the region.