Bombers hit southern Philippine city

Police inspect damaged vehicles yesterday after a bomb exploded in the southern port city of Zamboanga, southern Philippines on Wednesday night. Authorities said at least seven men were being questioned in connection with the two bomb blasts that wounded 30 people and disrupted power in the area. Investigators suspect the al-Qaeda-linked Muslim extremist Abu Sayyaf group may have been involved. PHOTO: AP

Al-Qaida-linked Abu Sayyaf militants may have ordered two bombings that ripped through a southern city's downtown area, wounding 30 people, the Philippine national security adviser said yesterday.

A homemade bomb underneath a parked van late Wednesday wounded at least five people in Zamboanga city, police said. While investigators were sifting through the van wreckage, a second blast demolished an inn atop a restaurant.

National adviser Norberto Gonzales told reporters that the Muslim extremist group Abu Sayyaf, which has been blamed for numerous bombings and kidnappings, may be involved.

"We have the suspicion that the top leadership of the Abu Sayyaf may have directed the bombings," he said, adding that the investigation was ongoing and no definite conclusion has been reached.

Southern commander Lieutenant General Alberto Braganza said the attacks may have been intended to divert a major offensive against Abu Sayyaf chieftain Khadaffy Janjalani in a southern province.

President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo's spokesman, Ignacio Bunye, condemned "the latest attacks made against innocent civilians," adding that the president ordered the police and military to "bring the perpetrators to justice."

Gonzales authorities were on high alert in Manila and the southern cities of Cotabato and Davao -- all targets of past bombings.

National chief Arturo Lomibao, who flew to Zamboanga yesterday, said security was tightened around possible targets like shopping malls, oil depots, train and bus stations, piers, airports and hotels in Manila.

Gonzales that two out of 10 possible suicide attackers from Indonesia may have entered the Philippines and could be trying to acquire explosives for attacks in the country, but he did not directly link them to the Zamboanga bombings.

"In our part of the world, if we're talking about Jemaah Islamiyah, I think the terrorist theater would be the Philippines," he told foreign journalists.

Colonel Edgardo Gidaya, head of the military's Task Force Zamboanga, suspected that a room at the inn might have been used as a bomb factory by the Abu Sayyaf.

Regional chief Prospero Noble said six people were under investigation, four of them considered suspects -- including three men who checked into a nearby hotel using aliases and a man who lost his left thumb in the blast at the inn. He said the injury was "very suspicious."

"The theory is the blast was premature and there was a possibility they were tinkering with the bomb," Zamboanga city police spokesman Felixberto Candado said.

A Malaysian national was also questioned but later released, Noble said.

Former police chief Mario Yanga, who is helping in the investigation, said initial tests on bomb residue showed traces of ammonium nitrate and fuel oil -- agents also used in the 2002 department store bombings that killed 7 people and wounded 152 in Zamboanga. The attacks were blamed on the Abu Sayyaf.

Zamboanga, about 860km south of Manila, is a bustling seaport that has been hit by deadly bombings in the past and continues to receive threats from Muslim militants, including the Abu Sayyaf.

The city of more than 600,000 people hosts the headquarters of the military's Southern Command, the staging ground for offensives against Muslim and communist guerrillas in the sprawling Mindanao region.

Several US soldiers are at the camp conducting anti-terrorism training of Filipino troops.