|
Thursday, January 11, 2007
Bomb blasts kill 6, wound at least 20 others
GENERAL SANTOS CITY -- A bomb explosion rocked this city's public market on Wednesday, killing at least six people and wounding 22 others, officials said, amid warnings that Muslim militants may try to disrupt this weekend's Asean summit in Cebu.
The blast, which occurred at around 6 p.m., ripped apart a lotto outlet along Santiago Boulevard in General Santos City, 1,000 kilometers southeast of Manila, said Senior Superintendent Alfredo Toroctocon, the city police chief.
Sun.Star Network Online's 12th Asean Summit Watch
Hours after the explosion, a second bomb blast hit Kidapawan City, about 110 kilometers north of General Santos, said North Cotabato Provincial Police Chief Federico Dulay. He said at least two people were wounded.
In the General Santos bomb explosion, Toroctocon said three people died instantly and another two succumbed to wounds. Staff at the St. Elizabeth Hospital in the city reported another person died on arrival, bringing the death toll to six.
Among the dead were two children - boys aged 8 and 12, the hospital staff said.
In Kidapawan, Senior police officer Pascual Peroy said an improvised bomb placed near the perimeter fence of a police outpost along the national highway went off at around 8:40 p.m., just after police on duty left the outpost to go on patrol.
A man walking near the police outpost was wounded and shrapnel hit another male passer-by, Peroy said.
Joint Task Force GenSan chief Col. Menard Geslani of the Philippine Army said they still do not have any suspect in the General Santos blast, but sources from the intelligence community suggest the Indonesia-based Jemaah Islamiyah terror group could be behind the attack.
General Santos Mayor Pedro Acharon, who rushed to the scene, blamed the attack on terrorist groups who have been targeting the city.
He urged residents to remain calm and assured them that police and military authorities were doing their best to apprehend those behind the bombing.
"Right after the Tacurong City blast (in December), I already issued a warning. We knew (from our intelligence reports) that the city was a target. It was unfortunate na nalusutan tayo," he told Sun.Star.
Chief Superintendent German Doria, the regional police chief, said police had no suspects but that the regional militant network Jemaah Islamiyah and its ally, the local Abu Sayyaf group, "usually are the ones doing all these explosions in the region."
But he said police also were looking into the possibility that the blast stemmed from the failure of the lottery outlet operator to pay winners of a lottery draw.
"This lotto outlet closed three days ago because many bettors won...then all of a sudden an explosion occurred in front of the Lotto outlet," Doria said.
Philippine National Police Chief Oscar Calderon, who is in Cebu to oversee security for the summit, said earlier Wednesday that militants might try to embarrass the government, a staunch US ally in counter-terrorism, by staging attacks during the summit.
Wednesday night's incident in General Santos was the 15th attack since May 2000 when a series of explosions rocked the city.
The following month, also in 2000, six bombs went off within minutes of each other in the downtown area here.
But the bloodiest attacks were in April of 2002 and December of 2003 where over 30 people were killed.
Chief Superintendent Romeo Ricardo, director of the police's Intelligence Group, said police and army troops have launched operations against militants throughout the archipelago to prevent them from carrying out attacks.
Those operations led to the killing of five members of the local Abu Sayyaf Islamic extremist group and an Indonesian militant in southern Tawi Tawi province last week, and the arrest of a bomb suspect two days earlier just southeast of Manila, he said.
On Wednesday, military Chief of Staff Gen. Hermogenes Esperon said troops killed another senior Abu Sayyaf member, Binang Sali.
Terrorism is a concern at the summit of the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations and their partners from Australia, China, Japan, South Korea, New Zealand and India. Most foreign and economic ministers arrived Wednesday ahead of their leaders.
Australia said Monday it had received information suggesting terrorists were "in the final stages of planning attacks" on a range of targets in the Philippines, particularly in the south, where Muslim insurgents and al Qaida-linked militants are active.
But Philippine officials insisted security for the summit was tight, with police and troops on the highest alert.
The Philippines last month postponed the summit, originally set for Dec. 11-13, at the last minute, citing an approaching typhoon.
But some delegates suspected concerns over a terror attack were the real reason. (Sun.Star General Santos/AP)
For more Philippine news, visit Sun.Star Iloilo. (January 11, 2007 issue)
Write letter to the editor. Click here.
Join the Sun.Star message board. Click here. |
|
|
|
[return to top]
[home]
|
|
