ZAMBOANGA CITY, 11 October 2006 — At least 12 people were killed and more than 20 were injured last night in an explosion, hours after officials warned that militants linked to the Jemaah Islamiyah were planning another bombing campaign in the southern Philippines.
Military and police reports said the bomb went off at about 8 p.m. (1200 GMT) in front of the town hall of Makilala town in the province of North Cotabato as villagers were celebrating the town’s founding day.
The attack was the second in eight hours. The first one injured five people in a public market in Tacurong city in nearby Sultan Kudarat province.
Before the blasts, US, Australian and Philippines officials said they had received credible intelligence that a terrorist group may be planning to carry out bombings in the southern region of Mindanao, where the wife of a top Indonesian militant was captured last week.
Officials would not say if the blasts were part of the feared plot but the police chief of North Cotabato said he had no doubt that last night’s bombing was meant to sow terror.
“Clearly this is a terrorist act,” said Superintendent Federico Dulay, who confirmed that the bomb was made from an 88mm mortar shell.
Military and police journals said the bomb similar to what two unidentified men detonated at 12.30 p.m. at a market in Tacurong.
Officials said the first bomb could have also been deadly had not an alert government militiaman hurl it away from a crowd before it exploded.
Army Col. Felipe Tabas said the militiaman inspected a bag filled with corn-chip snack packs abandoned by two unidentified men and found a bomb inside.
The blast wounded two women passers-by, one of them seriously, but saved a big crowd of shoppers, Tabas said, adding he would ask authorities to commend the militiaman for his act.
Tabas also said the noontime attack was clearly an act of terrorism.
“Nobody can do this except terrorists,” he told The Associated Press by telephone.
Chief Superintendent German Doria, the regional police chief, said the bomb could be remotely triggered using a cell phone but it apparently went off prematurely after the militiaman tossed it away.
The US Embassy warned that it had received “credible information” about possible attacks, particularly in cities in central Mindanao, “over the next several days.”
North Cotabato and Sultan Kudarat are both in central Mindanao.
Two Philippine security officials monitoring the area agreed, citing possible retaliation for last week’s arrest of Istiada Binti Oemar Sovie on southern island of Jolo in the Mindanao region.
Sovie is the wife of Dulmatin, an Al-Qaeda-linked Indonesian militant and one of Asia’s most wanted terror suspects for his alleged role in the 2002 Bali bombings that killed 202 people.
Quoting witnesses, Dulay said an unidentified man carrying a plastic bag went to a stall selling alcohol in a crowded area along a highway during celebrations of Makilala’s founding anniversary, bought a bottle of wine, then left.
The explosion occurred minutes later, killing a man and a woman on the spot, he said. Ten other people died en route to a hospital in nearby Kidapawan City or while being treated there.
A row of commercial stalls, a carnival and cultural presentations in a nearby gymnasium have attracted crowds this week. The powerful explosion destroyed a row of stalls and two motorcycle taxis and dug a crater in the asphalt road, Dulay said.
“The area is a total wreck,” Dulay told local DXND radio.
Makilala is a small banana— and rubber-producing town 950 kilometers (590 miles) southeast of Manila. Communist and Muslim guerrillas are known to have a presence in the town.
Police said the two bombs have been used in the past by Al-Qaeda-linked groups like the Indonesian-based Jemaah Islamiyah and its local ally, the Abu Sayyaf group, but investigators were trying to determine if other groups, like extortion gangs, were involved, Doria said.
About 10 security guards were deployed recently at the market because of intelligence reports it could be targeted, he said.
Here in Zamboanga City, police were on alert to safeguard an annual Roman Catholic festival that culminates with a public parade tomorrow. The predominantly Christian city of about 700,000 has been hit by deadly bomb attacks in recent years that were blamed on the Abu Sayyaf, which is on a US list of terrorist groups.
The United States has offered a $10 million reward for the capture of Dulmatin and US$1 million for another Indonesian, Umar Patek.
Dulmatin's detained wife said the two are hiding in Jolo Island with Abu Sayyaf guerrillas.
