The triple suicide bombings targeting churches in the Indonesian city of Surabaya in mid-May focused global attention on the explosive tactics of Islamic State-linked militant groups in Southeast Asia. Yet while the scale of the attacks in Surabaya sent shockwaves through the region, 1,500 kilometers to the northeast on the Philippines' insurgency-plagued southern island of Mindanao, IED (improvised explosive device) attacks by Islamist groups have risen steadily since the end of the Marawi siege last October.
The bombing of a cathedral in Koronadal city injured three people in late April, while an explosion in a crowded bar in Jolo left another 10 civilians wounded in early-May. These IED attacks were among the latest aimed at harming civilians in the region. The first was carried out by the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF) while the second occurred in a stronghold of the notorious Abu Sayyaf group.
Yet more often security forces have been the preferred target of IED blasts, launched with increased regularity not only by Islamist groups but also the communist rebels of the New People's Army (NPA). With Mindanao under an extended period of Martial Law – which was first imposed by President Rodrigo Duterte at the height of the five-month Marawi siege – the long-troubled island's plethora of armed groups appear to be turning to IEDs as they come under sustained pressure from military operations.
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