Posted on 05/10/2003 6:44:31 AM PDT by IoCaster
Bomb Explodes in South Philippines, 13 Killed
Sat May 10, 2003 09:27 AM ET
By Rosemarie Francisco
MANILA (Reuters) - Muslim rebels linked to al-Qaeda claimed responsibility for a bomb explosion in the southern Philippines on Saturday in which at least 13 people were killed and dozens wounded, officials said.
The blast occurred just outside the main market in the town of Koronadal on the southern island of Mindanao. Officials said 13 people, including the suspected bomber, were killed and about 40 injured.
The Abu Sayyaf, a Muslim rebel group better known for kidnap-for-ransom in the south of the Roman Catholic nation, claimed responsibility.
Fernando Miguel, the mayor of Koronadal, said in an interview with local dzRH radio that a person claiming to be Abu Solayman, an Abu Sayyaf leader, had called him and said his group had organized the attack.
"He warned that there will be more bombings in Mindanao," Miguel said. Koronadal is about 603 miles south of the capital Manila.
The Abu Sayyaf has been tagged by Washington as a terrorist organization with links to Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network.
The suspected bomber is likely to have left the explosive device just beside a motorcycle cab outside the market, investigators said.
About 15 motorcycle cabs lined up in two rows outside the main market building were destroyed by the blast.
Women wailed at the blast site, and body parts were scattered on the road and pavement. One arm was found on top of a basket at an abandoned egg vendor's stall. A bloodied and maimed body hung at the back of a motorcycle cab.
Shattered glass and debris from an optician's shop and a pawnshop littered the street.
"The suspect placed a package in a (motorized) tricycle. In a few seconds it exploded. The young man carrying the bomb was blown up," Miguel said in a separate radio interview.
"I am here at the scene, the suspected suicide bomber is really dead. His body was blown up, he has no clothes, he is naked," he said.
Earlier in the week, the government halted peace talks with the country's biggest Muslim rebel group, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF). The MILF denied responsibility for the blast.
"We are denying any MILF hand in the bombing," Eid Kabalu, a spokesman for the rebels, told Reuters, adding the group attacked military targets and not civilians.
The Philippines blamed the MILF for an assault last weekend on a southern town that left 34 people dead and many wounded.
The government and the MILF have held talks for years to end three decades of violence on the southern island of Mindanao. It has refused to hold talks with the Abu Sayyaf and vowed to crush the group.
Mindanao island, home to about 80 percent of the 10 million Philippine Muslims, is one of the poorest regions in the nation of 82 million people.
Move along, nothing to see here. It's just the "peaceful" religion trying to convert another Christian country in the only way they know how.
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