COTABATO CITY, Philippines (Al Jacinto / Feb. 12, 2009) – Philippine soldiers and policemen disrupted an improvised explosive planted in downtown Cotabato City in Mindanao, officials said.
Officials said civilians discovered the bomb late Wednesday along Sinsuat Avenue and was immediately disrupted by authorities. The explosive was assembled from a 60mm mortar bomb rigged to a cell phone.
No group claimed responsibility for the failed attack, but the military blamed rogue members of the country’s largest Muslim rebel group, Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) as behind the foiled bombing.
“Who else could do such an act, but terrorists,” Lt. Col. Jonathan Ponce, a spokesman for the Army’s 6th Infantry Division, told the Mindanao Examiner.
Ponce said the bomb was left near the Las Hermanas restaurant.
The MILF denied any hand in the failed bombing. “Why blame us for everything? We are for peace and the MILF has cease-fire agreement with the Philippine government and we have no reason to resort to violence,” Eid Kabalu, a senior MILF leader, said.
Authorities have previously blamed the MILF for the spate of bombings and attacks on civilian and government targets after the failed signing of a Muslim homeland deal in August last year that resulted in the collapse of the peace talks.
Although a fragile truce is still holding between government and rebel forces, sporadic fighting had been reported the past months. Manila said it would resume peace talks with the MILF, but rebel leaders insist that the government honors the homeland deal it initially signed in July in Malaysia.
Kuala Lumpur, which is brokering the peace talks, previously accused Manila of delaying the negotiations. (Mindanao Examiner)
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