Two female suicide attackers who carried out a double bombing in the southern Philippines were the widows of militants who had worked for the Islamic State-linked Abu Sayyaf group, the army chief said Wednesday.The pair blew themselves up in a coordinated attack on Jolo island in Muslim-majority Sulu province on Monday, killing or wounding scores of security forces and civilians in the country's deadliest attack this year.The death toll from the blasts has risen to 15 with 74 wounded, th

At least 14 people were killed and 75 wounded - including members of the security forces and civilians - in twin bombings Monday involving a suicide attacker on a southern Philippine island that is a stronghold of Islamist militants, officials said.The apparently coordinated attacks happened in Jolo in Muslim-majority Sulu, where government-backed security forces have long been fighting the Abu Sayyaf group.Seven soldiers, a police officer, and six civilians were killed in the two bombings, t

Philippine security forces were on alert Saturday for possible reprisal attacks after arresting a key leader of an Islamic State (IS)-linked militant group accused of kidnapping and beheading several foreigners.Abduljihad Susukan, a member of Abu Sayyaf, was detained in the southern city of Davao and flown to the capital Manila on Friday, where he was being held at the national police headquarters.He has been charged with 23 murders, five kidnappings and six attempted murders, a police statem

The Easter Sunday bombings in Sri Lanka rank among the deadliest terrorist attacks in modern history, and underscore the metastasising scourge of Islamist violence in Asia.

Once again, an attack on India by a Pakistan-based terrorist group has raised the spectre of a major confrontation on the Indian subcontinent and fuelled international pressure for Pakistan to take concrete action against the 22 United Nations (UN)-designated terrorist entities it hosts. But this time, the pressure is compounded by fury over attacks by Pakistan-based terrorists on the country’s other key neighbours, Iran and Afghanistan.