Ten people, including troops and civilians, were killed when an explosion tore through a van at an army checkpoint in the southern Philippines Tuesday, as authorities warned the blast could be linked to a wider plot by Islamic militants. The van driver, a suspected member of the Abu Sayyaf militant group also died, Philippine military spokesman Colonel Edgard Arevalo told reporters in Manila. Basilan is a stronghold of the notorious Abu Sayyaf kidnap-for-ransom group. It is one of several armed groups fighting government forces in the southern Philippines, where a decades-long rebellion has claimed more than 100,000 lives by government count. Duterte put the southern Philippines including Basilan under martial rule until the end of this year after Abu Sayyaf members based on the island joined pro-Islamic State group militants who seized the southern city of Marawi last year.

Source: The Guardian July 31, 2018 12:00 UTC