Bombs in RP mall kill six, Jamaah suspected<\/p>\n
Reuters, Zamboanga, Philippines<\/p>\n
Bombs ripped through the main shopping district of a mostly
\nChristian city in an area of the southern Philippines at the
\nheart of Moro insurgency on Thursday, killing six and wounding
\nabout 150.<\/p>\n
It was the second major bomb attack in Southeast Asia in less
\nthan a week and suspicion immediately focused on a radical
\nreligious group also being investigated for Saturday's explosions
\non the Indonesian island of Bali, in which more than 180 people
\ndied.<\/p>\n
Shouts of \"There's a bomb\", \"Another explosion\", \"Run...Run\"
\nrent the air in the city of Zamboanga as terrified shoppers and
\nshopkeepers ran on to narrow streets littered with wreckage,
\nglass and mutilated bodies from the twin midday blasts.<\/p>\n
Troops found and defused at least two other bombs.<\/p>\n
The military blamed radicals fighting for an Islamic state in
\nthe south of the Roman Catholic nation and said investigators
\nwere looking into the possible involvement of the militant Jamaah
\nIslamiah group.<\/p>\n
\"All threat groups are suspect in this incident, including the
\nJamaah Islamiah...and others,\" armed forces deputy spokesman Lt.
\nCol. Danilo Servando told reporters in Manila, referring to the
\nIndonesia-based group linked by some to Osama bin Laden's al-
\nQaeda network.<\/p>\n
The twin explosions in Zamboanga came amid a heightened
\nsecurity alert across the country after the Bali bombings, in
\nwhich carnage Jamaah Islamiah is also suspected.<\/p>\n
Police said they were questioning 16 people, including two
\nTurkish nationals and a Malaysian, over the Zamboanga explosions.<\/p>\n
Zamboanga Mayor Maria Clara Lobregat said six people were
\nkilled and that at least 20 of the 143 injured were in critical
\ncondition. The dead included at least three women and a child.
\nOne man's head was blown off.<\/p>\n
Zamboanga has been the scene in recent years of bombings
\nblamed on the Abu Sayyaf guerrillas, whom the United States has
\nlinked to al-Qaeda, prime suspect in last year's Sept. 11 attacks
\non the United States.<\/p>\n
Some 260 U.S. troops are in Zamboanga, the remnants of a
\n1,000-strong force which spent six months in the area this year
\nto train Filipino soldiers in eliminating the Abu Sayyaf. Police
\nsaid no foreigners were hurt in the blasts.<\/p>\n
The first bomb, which exploded around noon (11 a.m. in
\nJakarta) in the Shop-o-Rama mall, wrecked cars, flung motorcycles
\ndown the street and tore open shuttered shops. One man was thrown
\nthrough a plate glass window. Police were seen later dragging
\naway bodies, some horribly disfigured.<\/p>\n
Police cordoned off the streets around the shopping complex
\nwhere bunting hung incongruously under the baking sun. One corner
\nshop advertized European bread for sale.<\/p>\n
Heavily armed troops then ringed the area as investigators
\nbrought in sniffer dogs to check for further explosives.<\/p>\n
Investigators said the first blast occurred in or near the
\nvegetable section of the crowded Shop-o-Rama, one of the most
\npopular malls in Zamboanga. Thirty minutes later, an explosion
\nrocked a store nearby.<\/p>\n
\"The bombings are apparently coordinated,\" newly installed
\nsouthern military command chief Lt. Gen. Narciso Abaya told
\nreporters. \"They are targeting crowded places where there are
\nplenty of civilians.\"<\/p>\n
The blasts occurred about two weeks after a homemade bomb
\nexploded near a karaoke bar in the city, killing a U.S. soldier
\nand two Filipino civilians. Police blamed that explosion, on Oct.
\n2, on the Abu Sayyaf.<\/p>\n
Zamboanga, a city of 700,000 people 860 km (535 miles) south
\nof Manila, lies on the southern coast of the politically volatile
\nMindanao island, where Muslims have been fighting for a separate
\nhomeland for over three decades.<\/p>",
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