PHOTO: Catholic boy, Junerey Taub, is one of the victims killed by suspected Islamic bomb attacker during Catholic Mass on Sunday morning at Mindanao university gymnasium in the Philippines

Information reaching Kossyderrickent has it that Catholic boy, Junerey Taub, is one of the victims killed by suspected Islamic bomb attacker during Catholic Mass on Sunday morning at Mindanao university gymnasium in the Philippines. 

Information reads: “Junerey Taub, a Catholic boy, is one of the victims of the suspected Islamist bomb attack during a Catholic Mass on Sunday morning at Mindanao university gymnasium.”

Mindanao, the second largest island in the Philippines, is home to several Islamist insurgent groups and has long been a hotbed of insurgency against the Philippine government.

While the Philippines is mostly Catholic, Mindanao is home to a sizable Muslim population.

In 2017, ISIS-affiliated militants laid siege to Marawi for five months. The violence forced more than 350,000 residents to flee the city and the surrounding areas before Philippine forces liberated the city.

Philippine police have identified at least two suspects in the bombing of a Catholic Mass that killed four people, a regional police chief said on

Monday, vowing to hunt down those behind the blast, which was claimed by Islamic State militants.

The bomb went off on Sunday during a service at a university gymnasium in Marawi, a city left in ruins in 2017 by a five-month military campaign to end a bloody occupation by Islamic State loyalists that had triggered alarm across Asia.

“(We have persons) of interest, but the investigation is still ongoing. In order not to preempt the investigation, we will not divulge the names,” regional police chief Allan Nobleza told GMA News, adding that one of the suspects was linked to a local militant group.

The United States condemned what it called a “horrific terrorist attack” and said it stood with Filipinos in rejecting violence, joining a chorus of support from countries that include Japan, Australia, Britain, China and Canada.

“We mourn those killed in the attack, and our thoughts are with the injured,” State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said in a statement.

Islamic State militants claimed responsibility for Sunday’s bombing at Mindanao State University, shortly after Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr said “foreign terrorists” were responsible.

Marawi is in an area known as Bangsamoro, an underdeveloped Muslim region in the predominantly Catholic Philippines, that has for decades battled with lawlessness, separatist violence and clan conflicts, prompting concern that it could become fertile ground for extremism.