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By Al Jacinto, Correspondent
ZAMBOANGA CITY: A homemade bomb ripped through a
bar near a military base in the largely Muslim province of Sulu,
wounding six people, officials said on Sunday.
Officials said bomb experts were investigating
the type of explosive used in the attack late Sunday at the bar
owned by a retired soldier in the village of Busbus just within
meters of a military base in Jolo town. Four women and two Army
intelligence agents were wounded in the attack.
“Six people are wounded in the blast, four
women and two soldiers and we are still investigating the
explosion,” said Army Major Roel Ebreo, spokesman for the
anti-terror Joint Task Force Comet.
He said the victims were rushed to a military
hospital in Jolo. No group claimed responsibility for the bombing,
but authorities had largely blamed previous attacks on bars to the
Abu Sayyaf group tied to al-Qaeda and Jemaah Islamiah terrorists.
“We are determining what type of explosive was
used and who is behind this blast,” said Sulu police chief
Julasiri Kasim.
The motive of the attack was unknown and police
put tighter security in the area, but Abu Sayyaf militants that
killed and wounded dozens of soldiers and prostitutes over the past
years had bombed several bars outside the base.
And despite the attacks, the number of bars
outside the base has also grown through the years, catering to
mostly Christian soldiers deployed in the province of more than half
a million Muslims. The selling of alcohol and prostitution is
strictly prohibited in Sulu.
In February 2006, Abu Sayyaf militants detonated
a bomb at a bar outside the base killing three people and wounded
more than 24 others. A month later, the Abu Sayyaf exploded a bomb
in a cooperative store in Jolo town, killing nine people and
wounding 20 more.
Abu Sayyaf is now on the run from troops in the
south, but remnants often regroup in jungle camps where they are
said to be training with JI militants.
The JI is blamed for other attacks in the
region, including the nightclub bombings in Bali, Indonesia, that
killed 202 people, mostly foreign tourists.
-- With AFP
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