Bomb Explodes In Cotabato City In Southern RP

Policemen in Zamboanga City in the southern Philippines guard a checkpoint on Wednesday 11 Oct 2006. A spate of bomb attacks since Tuesday had killed at least 14 people and wounded more than 2 dozens in the restive southern region. (Mindanao Examiner)

COTABATO CITY (Mindanao Examiner / 11 Oct) - A homemade bomb exploded on Wednesday in Cotabato City, the 3rd in less than 24 hours in the restive southern Philippines region, where troops are battling Abu Sayyaf and Jemaah Islamiya militants, officials said.

Officials said there were no reports of casualties in the latest bombing that occurred at around 11.45 a.m. in downtown Cotabato. The bomb was assembled from an 81mm mortar, concealed in a bag and left near the office of the United Coconut Planters Bank along Don Rufino Alonzo Street.

"There are no casualties in the explosion," Lt. Col. Julieto Ando, spokesman of the Army's 6th Infantry Division, told the Mindanao Examiner.

Two more similar explosives were also recovered by soldiers in the busy business center of Makilala town in North Cotabato province, bombed late Tuesday that killed at least 12 people and wounded more than 2 dozens more.

A bomb also ripped through a market in Tacurong City in Sultan Kudarat province at noon on Tuesday, killing two women and wounding four other civilians, three of them women.

Intelligence officials blamed the Abu Sayyaf and Jemaah Islamiya and the larger Moro Islamic Liberation as behind the spate of bombings.

"It has all the signatures of the three groups, especially the MILF, which had carried out similar bombings in civilian targets in the past," one senior official said.

But the MILF has denied involvements in all three blasts. "We have nothing to do with the bombings.

The MILF is currently negotiating peace with the Philippine government and we are sincere with the talks. There is a cease-fire agreement and the MILF is not part in any of these terrorist activities," a rebel spokesman, Eid Kabalu, said.

The bombings came just a week after security forces arrested the Indonesian wife - Istiada Oemar Sovie and her two boys ages 6 and 8 – of a Jemaah Islamiya militant, Dulmatin, in Jolo island.

Filipino soldiers are pursuing Dulmatin and his companion Umar Patek, both tagged by Jakarta as behind the 2002 Bali bombings that killed 202 people.

The military said the Abu Sayyaf headed by Khadaffy Janjalani is protecting Dulmatin and Patek in Jolo island.

As many as 31 Jemaah Islamiya militants are believed hiding in the southern Philippines, particularly in Mindanao where the MILF is actively operating, it said.

No group or individual claimed responsibility for the twin bombings and military and police were not sure at this early whether the attacks had been carried out by the Abu Sayyaf or the Jemaah Islamiya, or if they were in retaliation to the capture of Dulmatin's wife.

Mindanao Development Council chairman Virgilio Leyretana on Wednesday condemned the attacks.

"We condemn in strongest terms these ruthless and senseless acts of terrorism done against innocent civilians. Not even an iota of reason can ever justify the conduct of these barbaric and cowardly acts against human beings," he said. (With reports from Juan Magtanggol, Abdullah Cusain and Mark Navales)