The Philippine military yesterday stepped up security in key urban centers in the troubled south after two separate bomb explosions injured four people, while in the north soldiers clashed with communist rebels, killing two.
Major General Agustin Dema-ala said the Abu Sayyaf rebel group and the Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) were the main suspects in the separate bomb attacks in the cities of Cotabato and Koronadal on Saturday.
"Based on previous experience, the Abu Sayyaf and the JI are the groups capable of launching such attacks," he said, adding that the bombings could have been a "diversionary tactic to ease the pressure" from unrelenting military offensives.
PHOTO: AFP
"We have beefed up our security," he added, noting that intelligence information indicated that the Abu Sayyaf and the JI were plotting to "launch a series of attacks" in key cities in the southern region of Mindanao.
Four hours apart
The first attack hit the compound of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao in Cotabato City, where the homemade bomb explosion injured a 13-year-old girl, officials said.
Four hours later, an improvised bomb ripped through a public market in Koronadal City, injuring three people. The explosive device was planted in a tricycle parked at the entrance of the public market.
Lieutenant Colonel Franklin Del Prado, an army division spokesman, said troops would continue to hunt down Abu Sayyaf rebels and JI militants believed to be hiding in nearby towns and villages of Maguindanao Province despite the bomb attacks.
Del Prado said recent information indicated that Abu Sayyaf chieftain Khadafi Janjalani, and senior leaders Isnilon Hapilon and Abu Solaiman were trapped in Maguindanao.
"We are not certain right now if there are foreigners with them," he said. "They are trapped in the border of Talayan and Guindulungan towns. Our operation will continue without let-up."
Janjalani, Hapilon and Solaiman are wanted by the US, which has offered up to US$5 million in cash rewards for their arrest or prosecution.
Communist rebels
Meanwhile, in the northern part of the country, army troops clashed with communist guerrillas early yesterday in a brief but fierce gunbattle that left two rebels dead and a soldier wounded, the military said.
An army reconnaissance team engaged about 15 New People's Army fighters near Santa Lucia town in northern Ilocos Sur Province, killing two rebels and seizing their assault rifles, according to a military report.
An army corporal was wounded in the clash about 290km north of Manila, the military said. The rest of the guerrillas withdrew into the nearby hinterlands and were being pursued, it added.
The rebels have suspended talks with President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo's government on ending the 36-year-old Marxist insurgency. They have vowed to intensify attacks in an effort to help oust Arroyo, who is facing impeachment over vote-rigging allegations and charges that her family received illegal gambling payoffs.
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese