Saturday, May 10, 2003
Bomb blast in southern Philippine city kills at least 12
Associated Press Cotabato, May 10
A bomb blast on Saturday at a crowded market in a southern Philippine city killed at least 12 people, officials said.
About a dozen others were seriously injured and brought to a hospital in Koronadal city, said police chief Superintendent Danilo Posadas. He said an initial investigation indicated the bomb was fashioned from an 81 mm mortar. Police suspect the person who planted the bomb died at the scene.
"Terrorists did it," Posadas said, without elaborating. The market was the scene of a similar bombing last month that killed two people. Police and the military blamed that bombing on the Muslim separatist Moro Islamic Liberation Front.
Saturday's blast killed two women vendors and three passersby at the market, and seven others died in the hospital, said Col. Agustin Dema-ala, commander of the army's 301st Infantry Brigade. Dema-ala said one of the five killed at the market was believed to have carried the bomb. He said a witness saw a man placing a bag on the sidewalk in front of a glass supply store at the market.
"It went off as he turned his back on it," Dema-ala said, quoting the witness.
The area was crowded because it was market day for traders in Koronadal, capital of South Cotabato province, about 980 kilometres southeast of Manila. Provincial Gov. Daisy Avance Fuentes condemned the bombing but appealed for calm.
"This is a tragedy. This is the work of terrorists," she said in an interview by DXOM radio in Koronadal.
The military says the MILF is known to make such mortar-bombs. The government has blamed the MILF for most of the bombings on the main southern island of Mindanao, including two blasts that killed 38 people in Davao city in March and April. Eid Kabalu, spokesman for the MILF, said the rebels were not involved in the latest bombing.
"It is not the handiwork of the MILF because we do not attack civilians," he told DXMS radio in Cotabato city.
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