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By Anthony Vargas, Reporter
The powerful bomb blast in
Tacurong City that killed as many as eight people and wounded 30
others has the hallmarks of a Jemaah Islamiah attack, military
officials said Wednesday.
The bombing took place barely a
week before the country votes in midterm elections and several weeks
after the US and Australian government issued warnings against
traveling to Mindanao.
Col. Julieto Ando, spokesman of
the Army’s 6th Infantry Division, said initial analysis indicates
that the device used in the explosion was put together by the JI, an
Indonesian-based terror group with links to the al-Qaeda.
Police bomb experts said the
device, which was composed of TNT and steel nails, was identical to
an explosive found last week in a police outpost and believed to
have been planted by the JI.
Central Mindanao Police Director,
Chief Supt. Felizardo Serapio, said that explosives specialists were
still piecing together the bomb fragments to find out more about who
assembled it.
Army ordnance experts said the
device might have been fashioned from a rocket-propelled grenade
shell wired to a battery and set off by a mechanical clock and
blasting cap.
Sources from the police
intelligence community said the explosion could be work of JI—trained
bombers who had been involved in previous bombings in Mindanao.
A senior intelligence police
officer said that in previous bombing attacks, the JI had tapped
local groups to do its bidding.
Following the Tacurong explosion,
police and military beefed up security in strategic areas in
Mindanao by setting up more checkpoints and intensifying
intelligence gathering.
Police and military forces have
cordoned off the blast site as bomb experts continued to sift for
clues.
Extra police patrolled the
streets of Tacurong while military checkpoints were set up around
the city.
The regional military chief, Maj.
Gen. Reymundo Ferrer, also pointed the finger at JI, saying he
believed the attack was designed to ease pressure on militants under
pursuit in Jolo.
Regional army spokesman Lt. Col.
Julieto Ando said more checkpoints would be set up along
Mindanao’s highways, and troops would guard sensitive government
installations.
Local militants with possible
links to JI have been rounded up in Mindanao, suggesting that the
group may have set up local cells that could be activated through
coded mobile-phone calls to carry out attacks, Ando said.
Several JI militants led by
wanted Indonesian fugitives Umar Patek and Dulmatin are holed up
with Abu Sayyaf fighters on Jolo Island.
The US government has offered a
$10-million reward for the capture of Dulmatin and $1 million for
Patek. The two accused of helping mastermind the October 2002
bombings in Bali, Indonesia, that killed 202 people.
Ando said troops have been sent
to areas where local candidates are expected to hold last-minute
campaign rallies ahead of Monday’s midterm elections.
--With AFP
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