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By Al Jacinto, Correspondent
ZAMBOANGA CITY: Three people were killed and at
least 18 others injured on Thursday when suspected terrorists
detonated a bomb outside an air force base, the military said.
The blast struck soldiers and their families
waiting near the main gates of the Edwin Andrews air base in
Zamboanga, said Col. Darwin Guerra, a senior counter-terrorist
commander.
“We don’t have the identity of the suspects
yet, but this is an act of terrorism,” Guerra told reporters,
without saying if the dead were soldiers or civilians.
Zamboanga has been the target of numerous bomb
attacks in recent years carried out by Muslim extremist groups or
criminal gangs.
“The bomb was hidden in a bag and was
detonated by remote control using a cell phone,” Guerra said.
“Military and police bomb disposal teams are
now on the scene and it will be some time before we can build a
definitive picture of what type of device was used.”
Guerra said three people were killed and 18
others were being treated in hospital.
The blast coincided with sporadic fighting
between Muslim rebels and soldiers since last week in nearby Basilan
Island.
The damaged building also houses the Philippine
military mutual fund, Air Material Wing Savings and Loans
Association, and office of the US Agency for International
Development, including the headquarters of Zamboanga City Rep. Maria
Isabelle Climaco.
“We still do not know what type of IED
[improvised explosive device] was used in the attack,” said Senior
Supt. Lurimer Detran, the local police chief.
Initial reports said 10 people were wounded in
the blast, but eight more had been rushed to hospital. The explosion
damaged the façade of the two-storey building. Police would not say
whether the bomb was planted outside the building or left in parked
vehicles nearby.
Eyewitnesses described a loud explosion followed
by scenes of panic as people ran from the area.
But other reports said the bomb, hidden in a
bag, was apparently left outside the building where a crowd of
passengers, mostly military dependents, was waiting for a C130
transport plane that would bring them to Manila.
No group claimed responsibility for the attack
but the US and other embassies have warned their citizens not to
travel to Zamboanga City because of threats of terrorism and
kidnappings.
The Edwin Andrews Air base once housed US
Special Forces waiting to be deployed to nearby areas in the
southern Philippines to advise the local military on
counter-terrorism.
But the US troops are now housed in the Western
Mindanao Philippine military command center, just two kilometers
(1.24 miles) away.
The air force base supports mainly Vietnam-era
UH-1H helicopters and C-130 transport aircraft of the Philippine Air
Force.
-- With AFP
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