Blast victims are rushed to hospital in Cotabato City in the southern Philippines on Tuesday, March 3, 2009. (Mindanao Examiner Photo / Mark Navales)COTABATO CITY, Philippines (Mindanao Examiner / Mar. 3, 2009) – A Filipino child was killed and four others were wounded after a mortar bomb they were toying exploded on Tuesday on a remote town in the southern Philippines, officials said.
Officials said the bomb was found by children near the village of Mataya in Buldon town in Maguindanao, once of six provinces under the Muslim autonomous region.
“We don’t know where it came from, but according to military reports the 81mm mortar was recovered by children and toyed with it and suddenly exploded. One was killed instantly from the blast,” Lt. Col. Jonathan Ponce, a spokesman for the Army’s 6th Infantry Division, told the Mindanao Examiner.
But a photographer of the regional newspaper, the Mindanao Examiner, counted five wounded children at the Cotabato Medical Center where the victims were rushed by their families.
He said relatives claimed that three children, all Muslims, were also killed in the blast and immediately buried by their families in accordance with Islamic practice to bury the dead within 24 hours.
Ponce said the blast occurred at around 2.30 p.m. It was unknown whether the mortar came from the military or rebels, but the town was scene of previous clashes between soldiers and Moro Islamic Liberation Front guerrillas.
Fighting was also continuing in the province since Sunday after government planes bombarded an MILF stronghold where a wanted rebel leader Ameril Kato was believed to be hiding.
On Monday, the military said eight MILF rebels were killed in clashes in North Kabuntalan town near the province of Shariff Kabunsuan.
Ponce said government planes bombed rebels under Ameril Kato, one of three MILF commanders wanted by authorities for the series of deadly attacks last year in Mindanao.
The MILF is the country’s largest Muslim rebel group which is fighting for independence in the restive region of Mindanao. Government peace talks with the MILF were stalled after the failed signing of the Muslim homeland deal. (With a report from Mark Navales)
