பிலிப்பைன்ஸில் பஸ் ஸ்டாண்டில் குண்டு வெடித்து 3 பேர் பலி

பிலிப்பைன்ஸில் பஸ் ஸ்டாண்டில் குண்டு வெடித்து 3 பேர் பலி. இது முஸ்லீம் தீவிரவாதிகளான அபு சையபின் வேலையாக இருக்கலாம் என்று சந்தேகிக்கப்படுகிறது.

பிலிப்பைன்ஸின் தெற்கே முஸ்லீம்கள் வாழும் பகுதியான கோடோபாடோ நகரில் இது போன்று பல தீவிரவாத செயல்களை அபுசையப் அமைப்பு செய்து வருகிறது.

Philippines blast kills three
May 18, 2007

A bomb killed three people and wounded 20 when it tore through a canteen inside a crowded bus terminal in the southern Philippines, security officials said.

Paniares Adap, police chief in Cotabato City, said fragments of an improvised explosive device were recovered at the blast site, where a child was killed on the spot. Two others died on the way to hospital.

Twenty people, including four children, were being treated for burns and shrapnel wounds.

"We're still trying to establish the motive for the blast, but we can't discount the possibility of a terrorist attack," Adap told reporters, adding most of the victims were eating when the crude bomb went off.

Adap said there had been threats of militant attacks in Cotabato City, the political and economic hub of the Philippines' Muslim south, since last month when two people were killed when the bomb they were carrying exploded prematurely in a residential area.

Muslim militants have been fighting for decades for independence from the Philippines' largely Catholic central government.

Manila is in talks with the largest Muslim rebel group but has vowed to destroy Abu Sayyaf, the Philippines' deadliest militant group which has links to regional terrorist organisation Jemaah Islamiah.

Last week, eight people were killed when a bomb ripped through a billiard hall in Tacurong City in nearby Sultan Kudarat province in an attack blamed on Abu Sayyaf.

Reuters