2 bombing attacks rock southern Philippines, killing at least 8

Two bombing attacks rocked the southern Philippine region of Mindanao Tuesday, in which eight civilians were killed and more than 20 others wounded.

An improvised bomb exploded in Makilala, North Cotabato in Mindanao, southern Philippines Tuesday evening, killing eight and wounding 20, reported the official Philippine News Agency.

However, other reports, quoting police, put the number of dead from five to 12.

The explosive went off in front of the municipal town hall and near the gymnasium in Makilala as crowds were celebrating the culmination rites of the town's 52nd foundation anniversary, police said.

Police quoted witnesses as saying an unidentified man carrying a plastic bag went to a stall during the celebrations and then fled away minutes before the explosion took place, killing a man and a woman on the spot.

The Makilala explosion occurred hours after another bomb exploded at the public market of Tacurong City in Sultan Kudarat province, also in southern Philippines' Mindanao region, in which four persons were injured.

The bombings could be related to last week's arrest of the wife of a Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) bomber, said Executive Director of the National Anti-Terrorism Task Force Ricardo Blancaflor, according to the local television network ABS-CBN News.

Blancaflor, who also a defense undersecretary, said the arrest of Istadia Oemar Sovie last week in Sulu might have played a great role in the bombings in Tacurong City in Sultan Kudarat and Makilala in North Cotabato.

The attacks took place on the same day when the United States Embassy in Manila and Australian government, citing reliable information, warned of imminent terrorist attacks in Mindanao.

The military said it has been hunting down some key leaders of Abu Sayyaf and their cohorts from JI in Sulu, 900 kilometers south of Manila, for more than two months.

The military last week arrested the wife and two sons of JI bomb expert Dulmatin in Sulu and brought her to Manila Monday for interrogation.

The woman was flown back to Zamboanga City, southern Philippines, after providing the military with information leading to her husband's location, the military said Tuesday.

Military spokesman Bartolome Bacarro said Istadia Oemar Sovie left Manila aboard a Philippine Airlines flight as the military deemed it necessary to return Sovie to Zamboanga to help it track Dulmatin and fellow JI bomb expert Umar Patek.

The two men, believed to be the mastermind of the 2002 Bali bombing in which 202 people were killed, are said to be hiding among Abu Sayyaf men in the jungle of Sulu and teaching the latter how to make bombs and stage attacks.

The last terrorist attack in the Philippines took place in February last year, in which Abu Sayyaf and JI were accused of staging three bombings on a bus in Metro Manila and in public places in two cities of Mindanao, killing at least eight people.

Source: Xinhua