By Adem Salvarcioglu

ANKARA

Daesh terror group claimed a suicide car bomb attack that killed 11 people in the island southern province of Basilan Tuesday, according to the military.

According to initial reports, a van was intercepted at an army checkpoint manned by government militiamen in Bulanting village in Lamitan City.

“A driver of a 10-seater van who looked like a foreigner and could not speak the local dialect was intercepted at Bulanting checkpoint,” Lamitan City Mayor Roderick Furigay said as quoted by Inquirer News.

Furigay said the driver was held by government militiamen for further questioning while other members sought military backup when the vehicle suddenly exploded.

Aside from the suspected bomber, five government militiamen, a military detachment commander, three women and a child were also killed.

Five scout rangers, including a young lieutenant, were also left critically wounded.

An investigation of the incident remains underway; the military suspects that while Daesh usually claims such attacks, this particular one was carried out by the Daesh-linked Abu Sayyaf group.

Basilan province is known as one of the strongholds of the militant group, which since 1991 has carried out bombings, kidnappings, assassinations and extortion in a self-determined fight for an independent Islamic province in the Philippines.

The Moro Islamic Liberation Front expressed confidence early this week that the passage of the Bangsamoro Organic Law will soon end the decades-long Muslim insurgency in the country’s south.