| Submit your comments on this article |
| Southeast Asia |
| Two Bombs in Philippines Kill Six |
| 2002-10-17 |
| Two bombs exploded at midday Thursday in downtown Zamboanga in the southern Philippines, killing six people and injuring at least 144 others. Police also blew up five suspicious packages and were checking whether they contained bombs that failed to detonate. If they'd gone off, that would have been a fairly worthwhile contribution to the current Terror Machine counteroffensive... There was no claim of responsibility for the attacks, but a military spokesman said the initial suspect in the bombings was the Muslim guerrilla group Abu Sayyaf. The group has previously threatened attacks in retaliation for an ongoing military offensive against it. Lt. Col. Danilo Servando also said there were similarities between Thursday's bombings and an Oct. 2 explosion in Zamboanga which killed four people, including an American Green Beret. Officials blamed the earlier blast on Abu Sayyaf. TNT apparently was used in both attacks. Guess C4's too expensive for them... Ten people, including two foreigners, were brought in for questioning after Thursday's explosions, police said. I love how these "foreigners" keep popping up in these incidents. For some reasons they're never Samoans, Greenlanders, or Argentines. Somebody used the phrase "terror tourists" the other day — I think I'll appropriate that term, since it's so exquisitely descriptive. |
| Posted by:Fred Pruitt |
| #5 I was there in BA in 1994 driving in to city center from Ezeiza airport when I looked out the window of the taxi and saw the smoke rising. Ironically, Menem was President and he is from immigrant Syrians. But this was the second bombing in the last few years. The first was the Israeli embassy, only 1 block from where I lived. All of this was a precursor to what we are seeing now - no one is immune - even Saudi (Khobar Towers). |
| Posted by: Jack 2002-10-18 05:20:10 |
| #4 It was widely regarded as a Hezbollah operation, which is strengthend by the large Lebanese population in northern Argentina and neighbouring countries. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/world/americas/285786.stm |
| Posted by: Paul 2002-10-17 18:28:49 |
| #3 "Middle Eastern guerrillas backed by Iran" were blamed but Iran denied involvement. So who's to know? With the benefit of hindsite it's hard to deny that it matches the Al Qaeda modus operandi! |
| Posted by: Aracona 2002-10-17 17:10:11 |
| #2 I thought that it was Iranians in the B.A. attack |
| Posted by: Frank G 2002-10-17 15:23:12 |
| #1 Well, Samoans, Greenlanders, and a host of other nationalities... but don't forget about the Argentinian bombing of a Jewish community center in Buenos Aires in 1994, which killed 86 people and injured 300. Wonder if Binny had his fingerprints on that one... early in his career, so to speak! |
| Posted by: Aracona 2002-10-17 14:59:24 |