|
Saturday, May 10, 2003
Bomb kills 13 in Koronadal
COTABATO -- Thirteen people were killed and 11 others were wounded in a Saturday bomb blast allegedly planted by Muslim rebels in Koronadal City, authorities said.
The bomb, consisting of an 81 mm mortar and a timing device, went off in front of the public market, scattering bloody body parts, local army commander Colonel Agustin Dima-ala said.
Hospital officials and police numbered 13 casualties, with many of the wounded in critical condition.
Dima-ala said among the dead may have been the person responsible for planting the bomb.
Police earlier attributed the blast to a grenade, but bomb experts later identified its source.
Regional police Chief Superintendent Rodolfo Tor, said the Muslim separatist Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) may have been behind the attack since it followed the pattern and methods of earlier MILF bomb attacks.
MILF spokesman Eid Kabalu, however, denied the group had any knowledge of the bombing of the majority-Christian city, located 960 kilometers south of Manila.
It was the second bomb attack in Koronadal in a month.
A grenade attack in the same part of the city in April, also blamed on the MILF, killed a district chairman and his bodyguard.
The MILF has been blamed for a series of bombings of mainly-Christian cities since March, which have claimed over 30 lives. AFP
(May 10, 2003 issue)
Want Sun.Star news on your mobile phone? Click here.
Write letter to the editor. Click here.
Join the Sun.Star message board. Click here. |
|
|
|
 |
| click
to comment on this article or discuss it with other readers |
[return to top]
[home]
|
|
