Two Bombings Hit Southern Philippines

COTABATO CITY, Philippines (Mindanao Examiner / August 17, 2008) – At least 3 people were wounded in two separate bombings Sunday in the southern Philippines, officials said.

Two bombs went off 20 minutes apart in two budget hotels in Iligan City and officials have said that at least three people were hurt in the attacks.

“Three persons are wounded in the bombings and we have deployed soldiers to help policemen secure the area,” Army Brig. Gen. Hilario Atendido, commander of a military task force, told the Mindanao Examiner by phone from Lanao province.

He said the first bomb exploded at around 5.30 p.m. at the Traveler’s Inn where three people were wounded and another exploded later at the Caprice Lodge. No group claimed responsibility for the twin bombings in Iligan, one of several areas being claimed by Muslim rebels as part of the ancestral domain.

Government troops also disarmed a homemade bomb planted near a school in North Cotabato, where fresh fighting between security and Muslim rebel forces erupted on Friday.

Authorities are also in high alert in North Cotabato after civilians on Friday discovered a homemade bomb in Mlang town, a day after policemen arrested a would-be-attacker and a self-confessed member of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front at the town's market after an explosive he was carrying went off prematurely.

On Thursday, soldiers also defused a powerful bomb at a bus depot in North Cotabato's Kidapawan City. The province had been attacked in the past by Muslim rebels and members of the Indonesian terror group called Jemaah Islamiya and the local militant groups Abu Sayyaf and the Al-Khobar.

Troops on Wednesday regained control of 15 villages in North Cotabato province after a weeklong battle with MILF forces that left more than two dozen rebels and soldiers dead and wounded and over 160,000 people fleeing their homes.

Some 800 rebels occupied the villages after clashing with government militias over a land dispute and the fighting eventually spread to other areas. (Mindanao Examiner)