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Philippine airport attack kills two
 [Arab News] A bomb went off outside an airport in Zamboanga City in the southern Philippines on Thursday, killing two people and wounding 24, local officials said.US Ambassador Harry Thomas Jr. condemned the "heinous attack" and canceled his trip to the city on Friday, saying he did not want police resources diverted from the investigation. Washington, he said, was ready to extend any help requested by authorities. Police said the blast was caused by an improvised explosive device. "There was one man who died on the spot and he could be the one who detonated the explosive device," Celso Lobregat, mayor of the city on Mindanao Island, told reporters after the incident. He later said another man had died while being treated at a hospital and 24 were wounded. They included Sakur Tan, governor of the southern island of Jolo, a hotbed of militancy in the country. Officials gave no indication whether there was a link between the attack and Thomas' visit. The blast occurred as people were leaving the airport after the arrival of a flight from Manila, Lobregat said. "I believe I was the target," Tan told reporters, saying the device went off just a yard away from him. "I saw the flash very clearly." Tan sustained a small wound near his ribs. He was later discharged from hospital. An enemy of the Abu Sayyaf militants, the Sulu governor has been targeted before. He escaped unharmed when a bomb-rigged motorcycle exploded near his convoy in Sulu in May last year. A town mayor and at least three security escorts were wounded in that attack. In the past, a small group of militants with links to Al-Qaeda and Jemaah Islamiah had been blamed for bomb attacks in shopping malls, parks and Catholic churches in the city. Dozens of US soldiers are stationed in the city, helping train and advise Filipino troops fighting militants who were sheltering a small group of Indonesian extremists. Posted by: Fred 2010-08-06 |
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