Posted on 03/04/2003 2:09:25 AM PST by HAL9000
MANILA, Philippines, Mar 04, 2003 (AP WorldStream via COMTEX) -- A powerful explosion ripped through the waiting area of an airport in the southern Philippines on Tuesday, authorities said.
Authorities said they saw many people injured and killed, but could not provide exact figures.
Local civil defense chief Susan Madrid said the explosion occurred at the Davao airport on the southern island of Mindanao.
Copyright 2003 Associated Press, All rights reserved
Several People Killed in South Philippine Blast
MANILA (Reuters) - An explosion killed several people outside Davao City airport on the southern Philippine island of Mindanao on Tuesday, witnesses said.
"There are many dead. We can see them," an employee of the city's Air Transport Office told Reuters by telephone.
Davao City, about 610 miles south of Manila, is the largest on Mindanao, where government forces are fighting Muslim separatist rebels.
"There was an explosion," Jesus Dureza, the presidential adviser for Mindanao affairs, told Reuters. "We don't know what it was. We don't know whether it's a bomb or a grenade."
04 Mar 2003 09:15
Philippine army says 14 rebels killed in clashes
ZAMBOANGA, Philippines, March 4 (Reuters) - The Philippine army said on Tuesday it had killed 14 Muslim separatist rebels in fresh fighting on southern Mindanao island, including 10 hit by air force bombs.
A series of clashes between soldiers and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), which began nearly three weeks ago, has forced 100,000 villagers on Mindanao to flee their homes, officials said.
Ten MILF guerrillas were killed on Sunday when government aircraft bombed a group of 100 rebels massing in Cotabato province, army spokesman Major Julieto Ando said.
Four rebels were killed in fighting on Monday in nearby Maguindanao province.
No casualties were reported among soldiers.
The MILF is the biggest of four factions fighting for an Islamic state in the south of the mainly Roman Catholic country. The bulk of the country's four million Muslims live in the south. The separatist conflict has killed more than 120,000 people since it began in 1972.
In Manila, Defence Secretary Angelo Reyes said Philippine and U.S. military planners were considering various sites in the Philippines for new counter-terrorism exercises between American and local troops.
Pentagon officials said last week the United States would deploy special forces in combat operations on Jolo island, near Mindanao, to help Philippine forces defeat Abu Sayyaf rebels, the most violent Muslim rebel faction in the Philippines.
Manila disputed the report, saying the country's constitution banned foreign combat troops.
"We will consider other options as to where, when, in what manner, how many forces will be involved," Reyes told reporters.
"We have a wide range of options. So let's not fix ourselves into one particular area. We want to generate as many options as possible."
The United States has linked Abu Sayyaf, whose main activity is kidnap-for-ransom, to Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network, Washington's number one suspect in the September 11, 2001, attacks on New York and Washington.
I'm pretty sure there are enough Philippine citizens already in the US military.
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