Terrorism in The Philippines - 1990s

Two American evangelists were killed when Abu Sayyaf militants launched a grenade attack in Zamboanga City.

During the last night of the MV Doulos' stop in the port of Zamboanga City two of her foreign crewmembers were killed when a grenade thrown by Abu Sayyaf members exploded on stage during a performance by its Christian missionaries. Four locals were killed and 32 others were injured, including several crew members of the missionary ship.

On Christmas Eve, unidentified men threw grenades into a street market in the province of Misamis Occidental, killing 5 shoppers and wounding at least 48.

6 people died and at least 130 more were wounded as attackers tossed three grenades into the packed Roman Catholic San Pedro Cathedral in Davao City. Red Cross officials put the death toll from the attack at 7, but the police confirmed 6 dead. The attack occurred during the main evening Mass when the cathedral was packed with thousands of worshipers. One device exploded by the altar while a fourth device failed to detonate. Eight hours after the attack, suspected Christian militants retaliated by firing two grenades at a Muslim mosque. One exploded, but there were no casualties according to police reports.

At the break of dawn, 200 heavily-armed members of Abu Sayyaf entered the town of Ipil and gunned down 53 people, robbed banks, plundered stores, took 30 hostages as human shields, and then burned the centre of the town to the ground. The town's Chief of Police was reportely killed in the attack and close to a billion pesos were looted from eight commercial banks. Army commandos pursued some rebel gunmen in nearby mountains while officials said that the rebels were looting farms and seizing civilians as "human shields" as they fled the town of 50,000 people. About 40 rebels, who may have taken hostages, were cornered in a school compound west of Ipil on the 6th of April when an elite army unit attacked. In the fighting that followed, the television station GMA reported, 11 civilians were killed.

Abu Sayyaf militants lob a grenade into a crowd that had gathered to watch firefighters put out a blaze in a neighborhood supermarket in Jolo, killing 10 people and injuring 74 more. This was an apparent revenge attack for the killing of Abu Sayyaf leader Abdurazzak Janjalani by police in December the previous year.

Abu Sayyaf members open fire on a Jeep full of Christians from Tumahubong, Basilan, on their way to a seminar in Isabela City. Some of the victims were hacked with bolos. Six were killed in the ambush.