2 Dead, 27 Injured In Bus Bombing In Southern Philippines

DAVAO CITY, Philippines (Mindanao Examiner / July 24, 2008) – At least two people were killed and more than two dozen others wounded in Thursday bombing of a commuter bus in the southern Philippines, police and military said.

The attack occurred at noontime at a bus depot in Digos City in Davao del Sur province, said Lieutenant Colonel Kurt Decapia, a spokesman for the Army’s 10th Infantry Division.

“At least two people are confirmed dead and ten others or possibly more were killed in the bus bombing. We have deployed soldiers to help police forces secure the area,” Decapia told the Mindanao Examiner.

But police said at least 27 passengers were injured in the blast caused by a homemade bomb planted in the bus.

“We have reports that 27 passengers were injured in the blast caused by a homemade bomb explosion. A cell phone was used to trigger detonation of the bomb,” said Senior Superintendent Cesario Darantinao, the provincial police chief.

Darantinao said the bus, owned by the Davao Metro Shuttle, came from the neighboring town of Bansalan. He said the explosion occurred at around 11.30 a.m.

The military said no groups claimed responsibility for the bombing. “We still don’t know who was behind this or the motive of the attack,” Decapia said.

But bus bombings in the troubled region were previously blamed by authorities to the Indonesian terror group Jemaah Islamiya and its local affiliate the Abu Sayyaf and the al-Khobar gang and rouge members of the larger Moro Islamic Liberation Front, which is negotiating peace with Manila.

On Tuesdays, government soldiers recovered a motorcycle rigged with explosives in Maguindanao province in the Muslim autonomous region also in southern Philippines where President Gloria Arroyo toured.

The motorbike was abandoned by its driver due to a flat tire before it could a military checkpoint in Ampatuan town. The military said it had received intelligence reports this week that terrorists could be planning to attack civilian targets using motorcycles rigged with explosives.

It said the motorcycle was en route to Davao City, which was previously bombed by JI and MILF rebels. Military explosives' experts found an improvised explosive device composed of TNT on the motorbike’s engine and connected to a detonator and a cellular phone that served as triggering device. (Mindanao Examiner)