Saturday, May 13, 2006 (Philippines)

Rifle grenades were among the items found in a box which was placed in a plastic bag and left at the mall entrance. Police believe it was a bomb that was intended to explode. Alert mall guards tipped off the police about the bag. Later, cops killed two men who they say had left the bag.(Sun.star photo/Alex Badayos) Police suspect that two men who left a bomb in front of the entrance of a mall Thursday night could be members of an Islamist group out to make terrorist attacks in Cebu. Police Regional Office (PRO) 7 Director Eduardo Gador said Ali Usop, alias Datu Ismael “Alex” Usop, and Datu Niel Ulama, alias Victor Ulama Zimenez, were suspected members of the Rajah Solaiman Revolutionary Movement. The Rajah Solaiman group has links to the Abu Sayyaf and the Indonesian-based Jemaah Islamiyah. However, aside from what appeared to be a bomb, the police have nothing solid yet to tag Usop and Ulama who were believed to have left it at the mall entrance. [full story]