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Southern Philippine police foil bomb attacks by rebels

Police disarmed four homemade bombs in the southern Philippines over the weekend and blamed Muslim militants for plotting attacks, officials said yesterday.

A suspected member of the rebel Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) told investigators he intended to plant an 81mm mortar shell attached to a cell phone triggering device, but authorities arrested him and seized the explosive on Sunday, military spokesman Major Armand Rico said.

Rico said the suspect, Arman Mano, told authorities he allegedly wanted to set the bomb at a public van terminal in Isulan Township in Sultan Kudarat Province. He was arrested in nearby Maguindanao Province’s Talayan Township, Rico said, without elaborating.

Security forces launched follow-up operations against other suspected members of the group, Rico said.

The police chief in Zamboanga city, where an ordnance team detonated a powerful bomb on Saturday, said suspects included militants belonging to the Abu Sayyaf group and the MILF, a group engaged in peace talks with the Philippine government.

Saturday’s bomb was packed with about 1kg of nails for added lethal effect, Laurimer Detran said.

Police also recovered two unexploded homemade bombs on Friday under a delivery truck by a worker at a soft drinks company in the city, he said.

The foiled bombings may have been intended to disrupt sporadic military assaults against the Abu Sayyaf and the MILF, which have collaborated on nearby Basilan Island, Detran said. They also may have been part of an attempt by the militants to extort badly needed funds from local companies, he said.

Security has been tight in Zamboanga, a predominantly Christian city of more than 750,000 people. A May bomb attack killed two people and wounded 19 others outside an air force base.

Police have accused MILF guerrillas for that attack. The rebels have denied any involvement.


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