Google map showing the town of Wao in Lanao del Sur province where the bus came from and the town of Maramag in Bukidnon province where the bomb explosion occurred Tuesday, December 9, 2014. And a policeman searches for bomb fragments in the bus owned by Rural Transit Mindanao in a photo passed on to the regional newspaper Midnanao Examiner. The military reported at least 32 casualties in the attack. (Mindanao Examiner)
CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY – A powerful bomb explosion late Tuesday afternoon ripped through a passenger bus and killing at least 11 people in the southern Philippines, officials said.
Officials said the bomb exploded in the bus owned by Rural Transit Mindanao just outside the Central Mindanao University in the town of Maramag in Bukidnon province. Nearly two dozen people were reported wounded in the attack.
“Eleven people are confirmed dead and we are still trying to account all the wounded in the blast,” Army Maj. Ezra Balagtay, a spokesman for the Eastern Mindanao Command, told the regional newspaper Mindanao Examiner.
He said authorities were still trying to determine who was behind the bombing. “Investigators are working on this case to determine who was behind it,” he said.
Balagtey said the bus came from Wao in Lanao del Sur province in the Muslim autonomous region in central Mindanao and was heading to Cagayan de Oro City in northern Mindanao when the explosion occurred.
Maj. Christian Uy, a spokesman for the 4th Infantry Division, said the bus was traversing the highway when the bomb exploded. He also confirmed that 11 people were killed and 21 others wounded in the powerful blast.
No individual or group claimed responsibility for the bombing, but previous bus bombings in the Muslim region were largely blamed to the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters and the Abu Sayyaf – both recently pledged allegiance with the Sunni jihadist group ISIS which is fighting for Islamic caliphate in Iraq and Syria.
Just last month, a bomb also exploded in another bus owned by the same company and killing three people in the same area. The bus originated from Tacurong City and was travelling to Cagayan de Oro City when the improvised explosive planted in the bus went off.
In April this, security forces also recovered an improvised explosive planted on a bus in Tacurong City. The bomb, assembled from a 60mm mortar attached to an old mobile phone and concealed in a cardboard box, was discovered by two passengers and immediately disarmed by soldiers.
But in August 2012, a bomb explosion ripped through a Rural Transit bus in Zamboanga City and wounded at least 5 people, including a boy. The powerful blast tore open the rear and the left side of the bus, which came from Pagadian City in Zamboanga del Sur province. (Mindanao Examiner)
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