| Submit your comments on this article |
| Southeast Asia |
| Six die in Philippines bus station bombing |
| 2002-10-10 |
| A bomb exploded in a crowded bus station in the southern Philippines on Thursday, killing at least six people and wounding at least 10 others in what a military official called a terrorist attack. Superintendent Casimiro Medes, police chief in Kidapawan city, said the "incendiary bomb" had been left under a concrete bench at the bus station. The victims included a 12-year-old boy. Two parked buses were damaged. Officials initially thought it was a grenade attack. Sounds very Islamic, doens't it? No one immediately claimed responsibility for the 3:15 p.m. blast in North Cotabato province, which came a week after a bombing in the southern city of Zamboanga killed four people, including an American Green Beret commando, and injured two dozen others. Philippine army spokesman Maj. Julieto Ando said he didn't know the motive for the attack, "but this is terrorism." You might say that... He said it was too early to pinpoint any group, adding that Muslim separatists, communist guerrillas and bandits have a presence in North Cotabato. The area's swarming with turbans and comrades and probably a few other flavors of nutcases... "If this is the handiwork of rebels, how could they say that they're champion of the masses?" Ando asked. "They're killing innocent people who could not defend themselves." North Cotabato, about 570 miles south of Manila, is an agricultural province where the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, a Muslim group waging a separatist uprising, and other armed groups operate. |
| Posted by:Fred Pruitt |