A member of a militant group supporting the Islamic State (IS) has been arrested in the Philippines in connection with the bombing of a Catholic mass last week in the south of the country, military authorities said on Saturday.
The suspect, identified as Jafar Gamo Sultan, was arrested during a search operation for four suspects in last Sunday's bombing at a Catholic mass in Marawi, the country's largest Muslim city that was under siege by Islamist militant groups in 2017.
The attack killed four people and injured 50 others, the Islamic State (IS) group later claimed.
The suspect was arrested during an operation carried out on Wednesday, said Brigadier General Yegor Rey Barroquillo, the day police identified two other suspects, Kadapi Mimbesa and Arsani Membisa.
According to General Barroquillo, commander of the 103rd Brigade of the Philippine Army, which is searching for the attackers, this investigation is also looking for a relative of Jafar Gamo Sultan, a man known as “Omar.”
The four men belong to the Dawlah Islamiyah-Maute group and are suspected of being “part of a cell” responsible for the attack, General Barroquillo said.
According to him, CCTV footage appears to show Mr. Sultan carrying the explosive device disguised in a bag at the Mindanao State University gymnasium where Catholic faithful gathered for mass.
The army said the attack may have been in retaliation for a recent military operation against Islamist organizations in the region.
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, ending their bloody armed insurgency.
But there are still small groups of Muslim insurgents who oppose the peace deal, including militants who have pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group. Communist rebels also operate in the region.