ZAMBOANGA, Philippines, 29 August 2005 — Philippine authorities suspect the Al-Qaeda-linked Abu Sayyaf group was behind yesterday’s ferry bombing that left at least 30 people wounded in Lamitan town on Basilan Island, a known terrorist stronghold in the southern Philippines.
Dozens were also hurt in the blast that tore through the lower deck of the ferry Dona Ramona at around 7 a.m. The island’s military chief Brig. Gen. Raymundo Ferrer said a box containing the explosives that caused the blast were left near the deck’s commissary where dozens of passengers were seated.
“It was a terror attack,” he said at a hospital in Lamitan where most the wounded were treated for third degree burns.
One of those injured, Pfc. Edwin Calinsag, said a young man sporting a pony-tail walked past him, left a box near the commissary and then hurriedly went out. The package later exploded and a ball of fire engulfed the lower deck, he said.
“I though he was just a port worker. He came down with the package and then went out, and there was a loud explosion and I saw the ball of fire and then smoke and everybody was screaming and running and crying.
“There was chaos and confusion and when the smoke cleared, there were people wounded, badly burned and down on the floor. I myself and my wife are also injured,” Calinsag, who was on a rest and recreation break, said.
At least 30 people were injured in the blast, said Philippine military spokesman Col. Buenaventura Pascual.
Officials said they were investigating what type of explosives were used in the attack, but there was strong smell of gunpowder inside the ferry, whose lower deck was destroyed by the powerful blast.
“Many of those wounded told police investigators that they smelled something like gunpowder after the explosion,” the spokesman of Basilan Gov. Chrisopher Puno said.
The ferry, bound for Zamboanga City, was picking up passengers in Lamitan when the bomb exploded.
The attack occurred just two days after Philippine military chief Gen. Generoso Senga inspected troops in the southern Philippines and vowed an intensified antiterror campaign in the troubled southern region, where security forces are fighting members of the Abu Sayyaf group.
Senga ordered Friday a major offensive against the Abu Sayyaf group, blamed for a series of bombings and attacks on civilian target on the main Mindanao Island, and also an intensified hunt for members of the Indonesian terror group Jemaah Islamiah, believed hiding in the jungles of central Mindanao.
“We are intensifying our operation against the Abu Sayyaf and the Jemaah Islamiah,” Senga told reporters.
Senga earlier deployed 400 Marines in areas where the Abu Sayyaf are actively operating. Troops are fighting Abu Sayyaf militants on Jolo Island and in Maguindanao province, where 10 soldiers were wounded in clashes last week.
He said the operation was part of the government’s antiterror campaign. The Abu Sayyaf was also blamed for two bombings in Zamboanga City this month that wounded 26 people.
The United States listed the Abu Sayyaf as a foreign terrorist organization and froze it assets abroad. Washington also offered as much as $5 million bounty for the capture of known Abu Sayyaf leaders, including Janjalani for the killing of two kidnapped US citizens in 2002 in the southern Philippines.
Last week, US Embassy officials visited Lamitan port to inaugurate improvement work on the wharf, funded through US development assistance package worth 21 million pesos ($375,000).
