Philippines

Bomb tears through southern Philippines bus

Monday 01 September 2008

Philippines officials say at least four people were killed and 19 more injured on Monday following a bomb explosion in a bus terminal in the southern city of Digos. No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack.

At least four people were killed and 19 others wounded when a powerful bomb ripped through a packed passenger bus in the southern Philippines on Monday, police and disaster officials said.
  
The blast, caused by an improvised explosive device, ripped through the bus, which was parked inside a terminal in the city of Digos on troubled Mindanao island, they said.
  
It was not immediately clear how many passengers were aboard the bus, and how many people were at the terminal at the time of the explosion.
  
"Four people were killed, and 19 others were being treated at the hospital," the Provincial Disaster Coordinating Council said,
  
No one immediately claimed responsibility for the incident.
  
Officials had warned the public to brace for possible attacks by Muslim separatist rebels, who are on the run from a military offensive on Mindanao.
  
Troops were hunting down renegade guerrillas from the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) responsible for a wave of deadly attacks this month on Mindanao.
  
More than 100 rebels as well as more than 40 civilians and soldiers have been killed in four weeks of fighting.
  
The clashes have put on hold peace talks between the government of President Gloria Arroyo and the MILF, which recently warned that the upsurge in violence could lead to a full-blown ethnic war.
  
Police said they were also looking at the possibility the attack could have been carried out by a criminal gang, as the bus firm had apparently received threats.