New Zamboanga Bomb Blasts Kills 6 ff
18 October 2002
Philippines
Death jarred Zamboanga City again before noon yesterday as two bombs ripped through two adjacent department stores in the city's busy commercial district, killing at least six people and wounding 144 others.
No group immediately claimed responsibility for the bombing, which authorities described as "a terrorist act," but Zamboanga City police have detained for questioning 16 people - 13 Filipinos, a Malaysian and two Turks.
A military spokesman in Manila tagged the Abu Sayyaf group of Khadaffy Janjalani as responsible for the blasts.
The first bomb - one of nine planted around downtown Zamboanga - exploded at around 11:30 a.m. on the ground floor of the five-story Shop-O-Rama department store along Gov. Lim street, some 200 meters away from the Zamboanga City police station. The blast critically wounded several people and sent panicked shoppers in the usually busy commercial district rushing into the streets, said Zamboanga City police director Superintendent Mario Yanga.
Minutes later, a second bomb exploded at the adjacent Shoppers' Central, instantly killing at least one person. Five others died on arrival at different hospitals or while being treated, hospital staff said.
Police said the bombs, one of which was gift-wrapped, were left in the baggage counters at the doors of both department stores.
Only recently, on October 07, the Philippine Foreign Secretary Mr Blas Ople, warned the US and EU that not reducing import duties on canned tuna could fuel terrorism in the Zamboanga area. There are 2 canneries located near the Zamboanga area.
The bombings came just hours after Lt. Gen. Narciso Abaya assumed his post as chief of the Armed Forces Southern Command (Southcom) and vowed to crush Abu Sayyaf terrorists operating in the area.
