COTABATO CITY (Mindanao Examiner / Jan. 13, 2012) – An improvised bomb exploded in the southern Philippines and wounding two civilians in the troubled region, police and military said Friday.
Army spokesman, Major Sergio Macarandan, said the device went off at around 6.25 p.m. on Thursday in Cotabato City. “Recovered in the crime scene were fragments of 81mm mortar bomb, disintegrated parts of a cell phone and leaflets with markings BIM-BYM,” he said, referring to the shadowy groups Bangsamoro Independence Movement and Bangsamoro Youth Movement.
No individual or group claimed responsibility for the attack, but the both BIM and BYM were largely blamed for the spate of bombings in the city since last year.
Macarandan said one person was wounded in the bombing, but police claimed two civilians were wounded in the attack. The bomb was placed outside a refrigeration shop in the village called Rosary Heights.
On Wednesday, authorities also disarmed two bombs in Cotabato, a day after the city’s deputy mayor Muslimen Sema was shot and wounded in a daring attack by two gunmen who were also killed by the politician’s bodyguards.
Sema was in his car heading home from his office when the gunmen, wearing body armor, attacked the vehicle. No group claimed responsibility for the failed assassination, but police said the assailants were employees of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.
Cotabato City, once tagged by the United States as a “doormat” for terrorists in the southern Philippines, is one of the most dangerous places in Mindanao with killings occurring almost every day and had been a target of terror attacks in recent years. (Mindanao Examiner)
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