Philippine Blasts Kill 10 People in Manila

PRESIDENT Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo has vowed to wipe out the Al-Qaeda-linked Abu Sayyaf group after it claimed three bombings that left at least seven people dead and over 130 injured. Abu Solaiman, spokesman for the bandit group, said on Monday that his group was responsible for the explosions in retaliation for the alleged atrocities the military had committed against Muslims and for the government to order a pullout of its troops in Sulu.

“The evil of terrorism has only one aim. It is to rule with absolute power and absolute force. The desperation of the enemy cannot be underestimated, even as it lies in the throes of defeat,” she said. Arroyo also called on the public to unite behind the fight against terrorist groups after Monday’s bombings in Manila and the southern cities of General Santos and Davao.

Abu Sayyaf, a small Muslim militant group linked to al Qaeda, said it carried out the attacks in crowded public places on Monday to punish the government for a heavy military offensive on its strongholds on the southwestern island of Jolo. “It’s too early to tell,” Norberto Gonzales, the national security adviser, told Reuters. “We’re looking at several angles, including the networking of foreign militants and home-grown rebel groups.”

Army and police intelligence officials said they were not ruling out a role by Jemaah Islamiah (JI), a regional network of militants linked to al Qaeda and the suspected fund-raiser for previous attacks by Abu Sayyaf and other Philippine groups. “We cannot accept the Abu Sayyaf’s claim hook, line and sinker,” a police counter-terrorism official told Reuters. “We might be seeing a mixture of various militant groups.”

The explosions came within an hour of one another as people were leaving work or going out for a Valentine’s Day meal. Analysts say the blasts will probably shake rising investor confidence in the Philippines’ improving economic prospects.

Three people died after a bomb went off inside a bus during rush hour in Makati city, the country’s financial district.Three others were killed when a bomb exploded inside a shopping centre in General Santos city, about 1,000km south of Manila. A 12-year-old boy died in the blast that hit a bus terminal in Davao city, also in the south.

General Efren Abu, chief of the country’s armed forces, blamed the string of explosions on Muslim rebels belonging to a breakaway faction of the Moro National Liberation Front and the Abu Sayyaf militant group.