ZAMBOANGA CITY, 9 May 2007 — At least four people were killed and dozens wounded in a bomb attack late yesterday in the southern Philippines, officials said.

Police and local officials said the homemade bomb went off at a packed billiard hall in Tacurong city in North Cotabato province.

The blast occurred close to a restaurant where election officials, candidates and military officers were meeting ahead of next week’s elections for congressional, provincial, city and municipal posts.

Inspector Benjamin delos Santos, the city’s deputy police chief, said two of the victims died instantly, two died in hospital, and 32 others were wounded, some sustaining critical injuries.

Rep. Teng Mangudadatu, who was at the meeting with election officials, told local DXMS radio that a small crater was gouged out of the pavement by a bomb, across the street from the restaurant.

“The area was a mess, shoes and slippers littered the ground. There is blood on the ground. Stalls were shattered. There was chaos,” said Roman Catholic bishop Colin Bagaforo, who heads the church-run Notre Dame University just 50 meters from the blast site.

The explosion “shook the ground,” said Bagoforo, who was among the first to offer help to the wounded.

Delos Santos said no one has claimed responsibility for the attack.

But Maj. Gen. Raymundo Ferrer, commander of the army’s 6th Infantry Division, said Jemaah Islamiyah militants were likely suspects.

“It has the signature of the Jemaah Islamiyah,” Ferrer said without elaborating.

The attack occurred despite a tight police security in Tacurong, one of the cities reportedly being targeted by militants in a renewed bombing spree. The other cities ere Koronadal, General Santos, Kidapawan and Cotabato, all in the main southern island of Mindanao.

On Sunday, soldiers detonated a homemade bomb near a police post in Tacurong after policemen discovered a package containing C4 explosive and steel pellets.

The latest attack came just a week after the United States, Canada and Australia warned their citizens against traveling to Mindanao island and the Sulu Archipelago in the southern Philippines because of heightened terror activities.

Security forces are battling members of the Al-Qaeda affiliate Abu Sayyaf and Jemaah Islamiyah militants and Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) rebels.

A grenade attack last month in North Cotabato’s Pikit town injured three people working for the United States Agency for International Development (USAID)._Another bomb attack in Midsayap town also in North Cotabato also injured one civilian. A man was also killed after a bomb he was transporting exploded in Cotabato City in Maguindanao province near North Cotabato.

Abu Sayyaf militants also beheaded six construction workers and a fisherman they kidnapped in Parang town in Jolo island on April 15 after their employer, Jolo governor Benjamin Long rejected a ransom demand.

Fighting in Jolo

In Jolo, four MNLF fighters were killed in fierce fighting yesterday, officials said.

Marine Brig. Gen. Juancho Sabban, deputy chief of the Western Mindanao Command, said troops clashed with wanted MNLF leader Ustadz Khabir Malik.

“It was Malik’s group,” he told Arab News.

Maj. Eugene Batara, a regional army spokesman, said the fighting erupted before 6 a.m. in the village of Kambing in Kalingalan Caluang town of Jolo island after patrolling soldiers caught up with some 200 gunmen.

“The fighting is still going on. We have sent additional troops in the area. Four enemies are killed,” Batara said in a separate interview.

A court has ordered the arrest of Malik and 10 others in connection with simultaneous attacks on April 13 that killed three soldiers in the restive island, about 950 km south of Manila.

Lt. Gen. Eugenio Cedo, Western Mindanao military commander, said the warrants include three counts for murder, two counts for frustrated murder and six counts for attempted murder.

The military also accused Malik’s group of sheltering Abu Sayyaf and Jemaah Islamiyah militants on the island.

“He is a fugitive man and we will help the police track down and arrest Malik and those who are involved in the attacks,” Cedo said.

Malik has denied military allegations that they were coddling terrorists. He accused the military of attacking MNLF forces and killing civilians in the guise of pursuing militants. (With input from Agencies)