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Two dead, 36 hurt in Philippines store bombings
AFP - 2 hours 29 minutes ago
ILIGAN, Philippines (AFP) - - Bombs ripped through two department stores in the southern Philippine city of Iligan Thursday, killing two people and wounding at least 36 in an attack blamed by the authorities on Muslim separatists.
Police swarmed the bloodied, upturned baggage check-in counters of the Unicity store and the neighbouring Jerry's Shoppers' Plaza in downtown Iligan to collect evidence shortly after the early afternoon blasts, an AFP photographer on the scene said.
Local investigators and witnesses said the bombs were made from mortar shells and were hidden in packages that were checked into the counters. The devices went off within 15 minutes of each other, they added.
Two people, including a baggage counter clerk at one of the stores, were killed, Master Sergeant Armando Amoroso, a military investigator on the scene, told AFP.
Thirty people were being treated at the Doctor Uy hospital for blast injuries, hospital staff said, while six other injured people were awaiting transport from the scene of the blast, an AFP reporter on the scene said.
Iligan is a city of 300,000 on the north coast of Mindanao island, where Muslim separatists have been waging a decades-long guerrilla campaign and have been suspected of harbouring militants with ties to Al-Qaeda.
"Our suspects are the lawless MILF (Moro Islamic Liberation Front) group, because of the type of IEDs (improvised explosive devices) that were used," army Colonel Nicanor Dolojan told reporters.
Hardline MILF units went on a killing and burning spree of Christian villages across Mindanao in August after the Supreme Court blocked a draft peace agreement that would have given the MILF control over vast areas of the south.
President Gloria Arroyo has since shelved peace talks and demanded that the MILF surrender the rebel leaders blamed for the attacks before talks could resume.
Arroyo "condemns the ruthless and violent acts of terrorism against our communities," her spokesman Anthony Golez told reporters.
"We condole with the families of of those killed in this tragedy," he said. "The government will not stop hunting these terrorists until they are put behind bars."
Dolojan said the motive for Thursday's bombings was "to sow terror in the area."
Closed-circuit television footage from one of the bombed shopping centres showed two male suspects in traditional Muslim garb depositing an item at the baggage counter, the military official said.
City Mayor Lawrence Cruz said the local government had received threats by telephone over the past two weeks.
"They are threats to bomb establishments -- department stores, churches, schools, public places, markets," he said over local television.
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Two dead, 36 hurt in Philippines store bombings
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