Police defuse bombs in Manila financial center

Police defuse bombs in Manila financial center

Reuters
Manila

Philippine police have defused two explosives planted in the
Makati financial district of the capital Manila by a group
demanding separate federal states for the country's Christians
and Muslims, officials said on Tuesday.

The previously unheard of group, styling itself as the
"Indigenous People's Federal Army," appears to have no connection
with foreign extremist networks, such as Osama bin Laden's al-
Qaeda, Makati police chief Col. Jovie Gutierrez said.

"Maybe they just want to call attention to themselves or to
scare," Gutierrez said by telephone.

The recovery of the explosives coincided with a stepped up
alert in Philippine urban centers against possible attacks by
local extremist groups.

The United States has accused Abu Sayyaf guerrillas, operating
on the southern island of Basilan, of links to al-Qaeda.

Gutierrez said the explosives, consisting of a round of
mortar, two grenades, blue powder and batteries, were found
before midnight (11 p.m. in Jakarta) on Monday but appeared
unrelated to the visit of FBI Director Robert Mueller, who had
left Manila hours earlier.

Mueller held talks with President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo on
ways of combating groups linked to bin Laden and al-Qaeda,
alleged masterminds of the Sept. 11 attacks on New York and
Washington.

One of the explosives was found in a flower bed along the main
Ayala Avenue while the other was found blocks away on a street
sidewalk.

Letters found with the explosives contained demands for the
establishment of separate federal states for Christians, Muslims
and indigenous ethnic minorities in the largely Roman Catholic
country, Gutierrez said.