Moro rebels blamed, foreign hand not ruled out in Philippines

Moro rebels blamed, foreign hand not ruled out in Philippines blast

Cecil Morella Agence France-Presse Manila

Islamic Moro rebels under the cosh from a fierce military offensive in the southern Philippines were most likely behind the bombing of Davao airport in an attempt to ease pressure on beleaguered rebel camps, officials and analysts said on Wednesday.

They discounted claims of responsibility by the Abu Sayyaf, a kidnap gang with ties to the al-Qaeda Islamic militant network, although did not rule out the involvement of foreign terror groups such as the Southeast Asian Jamaah Islamiyah (JI) organization.

"They are not here in Davao, they don't have the operators here in Davao so I doubt the statement of the Abu Sayyaf," Defense Secretary Angelo Reyes said.

Five suspected bombers of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), the country's largest separatist guerrilla force, were detained within hours of the blast, the worst terrorist attack in Southeast Asia since the bombing on the Indonesian resort of Bali in October that killed 202 people.

President Gloria Arroyo, visiting the scene a day after the attack that left at least 21 dead and more than 150 injured in the largest city on Mindanao island, announced that nine suspects were now in custody.

Arroyo ordered an assault on a major MILF stronghold in Mindanao last month, a campaign that left nearly 200 guerrillas dead and displaced nearly a quarter of a million civilians.

Mir Tillah, deputy director of the Institute of Political Economy at the Manila-based University of Asia and the Pacific, said a wave of blasts hit Cotabato airport and the market town of Kabacan last month, along with power transmission pylons that blacked out Mindanao.

While the MILF leadership has denied responsibility, "it gets attention away from them and their camps. Maybe the armed forces will redeploy to protect installations, as they have already done to protect power lines," Tillah told AFP.

"Protecting the airports and shopping malls would (sideline) troops."

The Abu Sayyaf, bracing for the deployment of U.S. anti-terror troops on the nearby southern island of Jolo later this year, claimed credit for the Davao blast through senior rebel Hamsiraji Sali, ABS-CBN television reported.

But Col. Bonifacio Ramos, commander of a military unit going after Sali's group on Basilan island, dismissed the claim as "a big lie". He said Sali's group was cornered in Basilan and unable to operate elsewhere.

"It is possible that this is a set play, the MILF asking the (Abu Sayyaf) to own up to this dastardly act so that it (MILF) will retain whatever respect that it still has," Defense Secretary Reyes said.