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Friday, February 21, 2003
2 dead, airport damaged in Mindanao blasts
COTABATO -- At least two people were killed and an airport terminal was damaged in Mindanao on Thursday in two bombings blamed on separatist rebels, military officials said.
A day earlier, or at about 8 p.m. Wednesday, suspected Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) guerillas attacked a barangay in Zamboanga del Norte and killed 11 persons and wounded nine others.
Other reports placed the death toll at 14.
Outside the Cotabato airport early Thursday afternoon, a van rigged with explosives exploded, killing at least one person and injuring six others, Colonel Tifonio Salazar said.
Military sources in Manila said the dead man is a Filipino soldier, but Salazar insisted that all the known casualties are civilians.
The blast shattered windows and glass facades at the terminal and on nearby buildings. It also caused a fire that razed down a restaurant and other establishments outside the airport. Two other parked vehicles were also destroyed.
No group immediately claimed responsibility for the blast, but military spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Manquiquis said Manila "one of the possibilities that we would consider is that it could be the MILF."
But MILF spokesman Eid Kabalu denied the rebel group was responsible for the bomb attacks.
A few hours before the airport blast, a suspected MILF guerrilla was killed and 10 civilians injured when a bomb was set off at a market in Kabacan town, 60 kilometers east of Cotabato.
The suspected bomber, Imaran Makalogi, 17, was killed after he appeared to detonate the explosive prematurely in Kabacan, military spokesman Major Julieto Ando told reporters.
In Manila, Defense Secretary Angelo Reyes put the Kabacan casualty toll at one dead and 10 injured.
"Residents identified the slain suspect as a MILF member," Ando said, adding that the explosive device was a mortar shell wired to a timing device.
The military mounted an offensive against the separatist Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) around the central Mindanao town of Pikit last week, leaving nearly 200 people dead, most of them MILF rebels.
During the explosion at the airport, the terminal was empty of passengers at the time. The provincial airport, situated on the Cotabato outskirts beside the headquarters of the Philippine Army's 6th Infantry Division, services one daily flight by national flag carrier Philippine Airlines.
Kabalu blamed warring political factions for the airport and market explosions. He did not elaborate.
He added that while MILF commanders have standing orders to launch guerrilla attacks against government forces, they are under strict orders not to harm civilians.
"The MILF is not behind the bombings. I believe there could be some groups who want to take advantage of the situation," Kabalu said.
MILF commanders "are authorized to execute actions they deem suited to situations in their areas of assignment targeting the military, provided that the targets are the military and its allies and not civilians," Kabalu said.
Reports from Purok Tubod, Barangay Poblacion Kalawit, Zamboanga del Norte, meanwhile, said armed men rounded up residents in an open area.
The gunmen then fired at the residents, killing 11 on the spot and injuring several others.
Other guerillas fired at the villagers' homes. They also burned six houses.
Kalawit police who responded to the alarm failed to catch up with the gunmen, who were on their way to an adjacent barangay. Security forces are tracking down the group. Sun.Star Zamboanga/With AFP |
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