ZAMBOANGA CITY, 31 July 2005 — Four people were wounded in two bomb attacks yesterday in the southern Philippines, police and military officials said.
The first bomb exploded just before noon close to the administrative building of the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) in in Cotabato City, injuring a 14-year old girl, said regional police chief Sukarno Ikbala.
Four hours later, another bomb went off under a tricycle near the gate of the public market in nearby Koronadal City, about 970 kilometers southeast of Manila.
Koronadal police chief Florendo Quidilla said there were indications that the second bomb was home-made.
Quidilla said bomb-sniffing dogs found after the first explosion an unexploded bomb made from a mortar round and attached to a cellular phone that was apparently designed to trigger the device. It was later defused, he said.
No one has claimed responsibility for the attacks, but the police suspect the Al-Qaeda-linked group Abu Sayyaf was behind at least one of them.
The explosion, near the administrative building of Mindanao island’s Muslim autonomous region, came about a week before elections for regional government officials.
There were no immediate suspects in the Cotabato blast.
The market area of Koronadal, the capital city of South Cotabato province, was also the scene of bombings that killed 12 people in May and July of 2003.
One of those injured in yesterday’s attack in Koronadal, tricycle driver Rey Nobleta, told police a male passenger left a bag with in the vehicle and said he would make a quick purchase inside the market. He did not return and the device, apparently hidden inside the bag, exploded 10 minutes later.
Regional police chief Danilo Mangila said he suspected the Al-Qaeda-linked extremist group Abu Sayyaf was behind the Koronadal blast. Mangila said the bombing may have been intended to divert a military offensive away from Abu Sayyaf chief Khadaffy Janjalani in a nearby province.
Mangila said security had been tight at the market, preventing the assailants from bringing the bomb inside where it could have caused more casualties.
Police said the bomb in Cotabato, planted near a light pole, went off around 11.05 a.m.
Investigators said they recovered parts of a shattered cellular phone, raising suspicion that it was used to trigger the explosion. “They’re using cell phones as initiators to set off explosive devices. This could be part of a bigger plot to sow terror. We are in heightened alert now,” police chief Inspector Joey Ampong told the Arab News.
Police could not say who was behind the blast or the motive in the attack. “It could be a rehearsal, to test whether cell phones are effective tool to trigger explosion,” Ampong said.
Abu Sayyaf terrorists tied to Al-Qaeda network had also previously used cell phones to detonate bombs in Zamboanga City. Instead of the phone ringing, it sends the power to an explosive charge and detonated it.
In the Bali bombings in October 2002 that killed 202 people, Jemaah Islamiyah terrorists triggered a bomb in a mini-bus outside the Sari Club with a cell-phone detonator. A car bomb detonated by mobile phone killed 12 people at Jakarta’s Marriott hotel in August 2003.
