Eight dead, 19 injured in powerful blast in RP<\/p>\n
Agencies, Cotabato, Philippines<\/p>\n
At least eight people were killed and 19 others wounded on
\nThursday after a bomb ripped through a bus terminal in the
\nsouthern Philippines, police and military said.<\/p>\n
Initial police investigations showed the communist New
\nPeople's Army (NPA) was behind the powerful blast, but the
\nmilitary has not ruled out the country's largest Moro separatist
\nmovement as among suspects.<\/p>\n
Officials feared the death toll from the explosion, the second
\nin the troubled south in about a week, could rise as many of
\nthose wounded were in a critical condition.<\/p>\n
Witnesses claimed the bomb was hurled into a group of waiting
\ncommuters shortly before 3:00 p.m. (2:00 p.m. Jakarta time) in
\nKidapawan city, some 940 kilometers (582 miles) south of Manila,
\ncity police chief Superintendent Casimiro Medes said.<\/p>\n
A woman and a child were killed on the spot while the rest
\nsuccumbed to wounds in hospital. Some of the 19 wounded were
\nchildren.<\/p>\n
\"It could be either the handiwork of the NPA or the MILF (Moro
\nIslamic Liberation Front) because it (the area where the blast
\noccurred) is situated in the boundary where the NPA and the MILF
\noperate,\" Local army spokesman Major Julieto Ando said.<\/p>\n
Ando said bomb experts who sifted through the rubble believe
\nthe bomb detonated under a bench near the ticketing booth.<\/p>\n
The booth was totally destroyed along with two buses parked
\nnearby.<\/p>\n
Police chief Medes said the attack could have been launched by
\nthe NPA to press its demand for illegal \"revolutionary taxes\"
\nfrom the bus company.<\/p>\n
\"We are looking into the possibility of the involvement of the
\nNPA who in the past were extorting money from the bus firm,\" he
\nsaid.<\/p>\n
The NPA, which has been included by the U.S. government on its
\nlist of foreign terrorist organizations, is the armed wing of the
\nCommunist Party of the Philippines which has waged an insurgency
\nagainst Manila for 33 years.<\/p>\n
The military said, however, it was not ruling out the
\ninvolvement of the MILF which also operates in the area.<\/p>\n
The MILF, with an estimated force of more than 12,000
\nfighters, has been waging a guerrilla war for a separate Islamic
\nstate in the south since 1978 when it split with the larger Moro
\nNational Liberation Front. The MNLF signed a peace pact with
\nManila in 1996.<\/p>\n
President Gloria Arroyo launched peace talks with the MILF
\nwhen she assumed office in 2001, leading to a cease-fire accord.<\/p>\n
Both the NPA and the MILF had earlier said they have an
\nexisting \"tactical alliance\" in areas where they both operate.<\/p>\n
Thursday's attack was the second in the southern Philippines
\nsince Oct. 2, when suspected Muslim Abu Sayyaf guerrillas
\ndetonated a bomb in Zamboanga city, killing a U.S. serviceman and
\nthree Filipinos.<\/p>\n
A homemade bomb similar to the one used in the Oct. 2 attack
\nwas meanwhile recovered from a commuter vehicle in Zamboanga on
\nThursday.<\/p>\n
The bomb was stashed on a mini-bus by an unidentified
\npassenger late Wednesday and was discovered later by the driver,
\nregional police chief Simeon Dizon said.<\/p>\n
Separately, a Jordanian man detained for immigration
\nirregularities was suspected to be linked to the Zamboanga
\nattack, but officials said on Thursday he was likely to be
\ndeported soon as police did not have evidence to press criminal
\ncharges against him.<\/p>\n
The 36-year-old man was taken into custody on Tuesday in
\nManila for violating immigration laws.<\/p>",
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