10/12/2020 Philippines (International Christian Concern) – On October 10, the Philippine authorities captured an Indonesian woman they suspect was plotting a suicide attack.
According to Benar News, the woman, identified as Rezky Fantasya Rullie, alias Cici, was apprehended in a pre-dawn raid by security forces on the island of Jolo along with two Filipino women believed to be married to pro-Islamic State Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG) militants, the military-led Joint Task Force Sulu said in a statement.
Gathered along with the apprehended individuals were suicide vests, which according to the military, might soon to be put to use by Rullie, since she has agreed to carry out the next suicide bombing mission.
Philippine security forces had intensified a manhunt for domestic and foreign militants and bomb makers after two female suicide bombers killed 15 people in Jolo in the southern province of Sulu last August.
According to Brig. Gen. William Gonzales, head of the task force in Jolo, “Rullie was first on our list since we have received intelligence reports that she is going to conduct a suicide bombing after the death of her husband,” referring to the woman’s Indonesian husband, Andi Baso, who the military said died in a clash with troops in Sulu on Aug. 29.
Baso, a member of the IS-linked Indonesian terrorist group Jamaah Ansharut Daulah (JAD), was wanted in Indonesia for his alleged involvement in a 2016 bomb attack at the Oikumene Church in Samarinda, East Kalimantan province. ICC has been helping the young Samarinda victims who suffer various degrees of burns on their bodies.
Rullie’s parents also allegedly blew themselves up inside the Our Lady of Mount Carmel cathedral on Jolo in January 2019. The suicide attack killed 23 people, including the bombers.
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