Bombing spree continues to scare people in southern Philippines

Bombing spree continued to scare people in southern Philippines as another powerful improvised bomb exploded near a police camp Sunday night in Sulu island, 900 kilometers south of Manila, said the military Monday.

The area command of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) in Zamboanga Peninsula said a powerful bomb exploded Sunday evening near a military hospital and a government-run hotel in Jolo, the main town of Sulu, where a campaign by government troops against Abu Sayyaf rebels has been going on for two months and a half.

Maj. Gen. Eugenio Cedo, area command chief of the Western Mindanao Command (WestMincom), said the latest powerful explosion shook a Southern Philippines police camp, wounding at least three people.

Initial police investigation disclosed that the improvised bomb, stuffed in a plastic bag, was left in a tricycle cab just a few meters away from Camp Asturias in Jolo.

Three bombing attacks took place last week in Mindanao, killing at least six people and wounding some 30. No group has claimed responsibility for the latest terroristic acts in the southern island, but ground commanders of the military in the area believe that sympathizers of the Abu Sayyaf rebels and their allies Jimaah Islamiyah (JI) militants, are behind the bombing spree.

The military offensive against Abu Sayyaf and JI, dubbed "Oplan Ultimatum", started on Aug. 1 with the support of U.S. military intelligence.

Early Sunday morning, government authorities defused another powerful bomb planted somewhere near a crowded public market in Pagadian City in Zamboanga del Sur province some 800 kilometers south of Manila.

The military and police placed the entire units in the southern island on heightened alert since powerful bomb explosions shook Tacurong City and Makilala in North Cotabato last Tuesday and Wednesday.

Source: Xinhua