Southern Philippines bomb blasts: six dead, 4o wounded

Southern Philippines bomb blasts: six dead, 4o wounded. MANILA (AFP) - – At least six people have been killed and more than 40 others wounded by twin bomb blasts in the southern Philippines, in what officials described as coordinated attacks by Al Qaeda-linked militants.

The first bomb exploded in a commercial area on Jolo island, killing six people and wounding around 30 others, police said. It was followed around two hours later by a blast next to a parked military patrol jeep in Iligan city.

The second blast wounded at least 10 people, including three soldiers, the military said.

Jolo is a stronghold of Abu Sayyaf Muslim rebels and local anti-terror task force chief Major General Juancho Sabban was quick to point the finger at the militant group.

"This is a signature bomb attack of the Abu Sayyaf," Sabban said, speaking on local radio. He said that the bomb was hidden beneath the saddle of a motorcycle that was parked outside a downtown hardware store.

The Abu Sayyaf has been blamed for a string of bombings and kidnappings, most recently of three Red Cross workers on the island in January. They are still holding one of them, an Italian, hostage.

Regional police spokesman Superintendent Bayani Gucela said six civilians were killed in the Jolo blast, while at least 30 others were wounded. Police in Iligan said at least 10 people were wounded there.

"The (Jolo) commercial district area was packed with people when the explosion happened," Sabban said on local radio. "All our doctors and nurses are already there in the area taking care of the victims."

Police disarmed another bomb near Jolo's Mount Carmel Catholic cathedral while a third suspicious package was also found and safely detonated.

"We have cordoned off the area and (are) setting up checkpoints," Sabban said.

Tuesday's bombings came just two days after a bomb exploded outside a Roman Catholic cathedral in Cotabato city, also in the south, Sunday.

The number of deaths in that attack, which was blamed on the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), another Islamic rebel group, rose to six Tuesday, when one of the more than 50 people wounded died of his injuries, officials said.

President Gloria Arroyo's senior adviser for the south, Jesus Dureza, said the spate of bombings appeared to be coordinated. "This is no longer isolated, but orchestrated," Dureza told reporters in Cotabato.

He said that foreign militants from the Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) militant group had recently trained dozens of local bombers for missions in the south.

Since January, there had been about 56 bombings in the south, some of them targeting troops, but most of them killing or maiming civilians, he added.

Sabban said it was not clear whether the Abu Sayyaf attack on Jolo was linked with the MILF attack, although both groups were known to have helped each other in the past.

The MILF has also admitted to training with the JI in the past, and military intelligence officials have said dozens of foreign militants remain in the south.

The Abu Sayyaf has been on the run from a military offensive launched after they kidnapped Italian aid worker Eugenio Vagni in January. A Filipina and a Swiss colleague abducted with Vagni were separately freed in April.

Vagni is believed to be being held hostage in the dense jungles of Jolo, and the 62-year-old has been in poor health, according to the government.

In May, the island province's governor Abdusakur Tan escaped a roadside bomb attack by the Abu Sayyaf that wounded five of his bodyguards.