Monday, October 16, 2006 Troops foil 1 bomb, but Jolo camp hit
ZAMBOANGA—An explosion shook a southern police camp late last night, wounding at least three people, military authorities said.
The blast occurred at Camp Asturias on the strife-torn island of Jolo, near a military hospital and a government-run hotel, said military spokesman Lt. Col. Bartolome Bacarro.
Bacarro said the bomb was placed inside a plastic bag and left in a tricycle parked outside the Peacekeepers Inn, a popular hotel and bar used by police and military personnel.
Provincial Police Chief Ahiron Ajirim said those injured were civilians. No one has claimed responsibility so far.
Elsewhere in Mindanao yesterday, military ordnance experts disarmed a bomb planted near the entrance to a crowded marketplace in the city of Pagadian.
The city’s police chief initially said one bomb went off harmlessly while another bomb was defused, but the military later clarified that they had found only one bomb containing two mortar shells and that no explosion occurred.
In Manila, security forces have been placed on red alert following reports that Muslim extremists are planning a series of bombings in the capital.
The military is monitoring all entry points to the capital following reports that members of the Rajah Sulaiman Movement were planning to launch a bombing campaign there. The Rajah Sulaiman Movement is a small group comprising Christian converts to Islam.
The latest incident follows a series of bomb attacks on commercial areas in Mindanao last week. Twelve people were killed and scores injured in the blasts.
Officials have blamed Muslim extremists linked to the Abu Sayyaf, a local Islamic militant group, and the regional Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) group for the previous bombings.
Both Abu Sayyaf and JI have been linked to the Al-Qaeda terror network blamed for the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks in the United States.
Previous bomb blasts were suspected to be diversionary attempts or retaliation for a massive military offensive in Jolo, where troops are hunting JI bomb-makers, Dulmatin and Umar Patek and their Abu Sayyaf hosts.
Dulmatin and Patek are wanted for the 2002 bombings on the Indonesian resort island of Bali that killed more than 200 people, mostly foreign tourists.
In Pagadian’s case yesterday, soldiers defused a bomb found just three hours before it was timed to explode near a market in the southern Mindanao region, the scene of recent terrorist attacks, police said.
A guard found the bomb—a rocket-propelled grenade and an M203 rifle grenade attached to an alarm clock and batteries—in a backpack near the gate of the Agora market in Pagadian city in Zamboanga del Sur province, said regional police Chief Superintendent Jaime Caringal said.
Investigators are looking for witnesses to determine who planted the bomb, which was found after dawn in the provincial capital, Caringal said.
Troops and policemen later set up checkpoints and intensified patrols in Pagadian.
“We’re very closely guarding the piers, airports and all places where terrorist activities can happen,” Caringal told dzBB radio.
Army Brig. Gen. Raymundo Ferrer said intelligence indicated Muslim militants planned to detonate at least six bombs in the predominantly Christian city, and that soldiers were searching for more explosives.
Authorities have placed Mindanao under “extreme critical alert” - the highest of a four-step public terror warning system - after three bombings last week, including one powerful blast that killed six people and wounded 29 others during a fiesta late Tuesday in Makilala town in North Cotabato.
The US, British and Australian embassies advised their citizens against traveling to Mindanao due to “credible information” that terrorists could strike.
Police Chief Supt. German Doria said an investigation indicated the bomb attacks were plotted by Indonesian militants Dulmatin and Umar Patek.
Doria said he believes the two collaborated with Usman Basit, a Filipino militant, and six other local guerrillas in the violence last week.
Police are preparing criminal charges against Dulmatin, Patek, Basit and other militants in connection with the attacks, he said. (AFP/AP)
