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| Southeast Asia |
| JI recruits boom bakeshop |
| 2005-08-31 |
| Authorities in Central Mindanao are looking into the possibility that Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) new recruits set out the latest explosion that rocked Kabacan town in North Cotabato Monday evening. Major General Agustin Dema-ala, chief of the Army's 6th Infantry Division, said no one was hurt in the explosion that happened at 10 p.m. at the corner of Roxas and Aglipay streets, near the Kabacan Public Market. He said the area was already deserted when a homemade bomb exploded and damaged a bakeshop owned by Crisostomo Baluyot. The bomb was rigged to a thermos jug filled with gasoline and an electronic timer wired to a battery. The attack late Monday occurred just a day after another homemade bomb exploded inside the ferry m/v Dona Ramona in Basilan island and wounded at least 30 people. Officials said the same type of explosive, a firebomb, was used in both incidents. Demaala said they are looking into the possibility that recruits of the Southeast Asian terrorist network Jemaah Islamiyah were behind the bombing. But Provincial Police Office Director Miguel Laurel believes those behind Monday's explosion could be extortionists who did not necessarily want to hurt people. "Itinaon na walang tao sa paligid kaya walang nasaktan," Laurel said in a telephone interview. (They timed the explosion when there were no people around so no one was hurt.) North Cotabato Governor Emmanuel Piñol ordered a manhunt operation on the perpetrators. The governor said the celebration of the province's 91st founding anniversary would continue despite the recent bombings. Vice President Noli de Castro and Cuban Ambassador Jorge Rey Jimenez would grace Thursday's celebration as scheduled. The Kabacan bombing came two days after suspected terrorists also bombed a ferry in Basilan province, injuring 30 passengers, mostly children. The military said Sunday's blast was the handiwork of the Abu Sayyaf, believed to have links with the JI. Demaala said anti-terror operation is going on in the southern Philippines to hunt down members of the Abu Sayyaf and at least four Indonesian JI terrorists. "We are pursuing the Abu Sayyaf and members of the Indonesian terror group Jemaah Islamiyah operating in central Mindanao," he said but did not elaborate. It was not yet known if the Abu Sayyaf and the Jemaah Islamiya have joined forces in the south, but previous military statements said the two groups had forged an alliance, along with renegade members of the country's largest separatist rebels Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), which is currently negotiating peace with Manila. Last week, troops foiled a bombing attempt in Kabacan town after villagers discovered an 81mm mortar bomb attached to a timer before it was able to explode. No group or individual claimed responsibility for the latest bombing to hit parts of Mindanao. |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |
| #3 LOL Ed! |
| Posted by: Shipman 2005-08-31 11:56 |
| #2 Hot cross buns. |
| Posted by: ed 2005-08-31 08:14 |
| #1 What is this obsession with blowing up bakeries? |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2005-08-31 07:25 |