Crime scene investigators gather evidence following a grenade attack just outside an air force base Wednesday, October 10, 2012 on a truck driven by a hotel owner in Zamboanga City in the southern Philippines. (Mindanao Examiner Photo)
ZAMBOANGA CITY (Mindanao Examiner / Oct. 10, 2012) – Philippine authorities on Wednesday arrested 2 men who exploded a grenade under a truck driven by a hotel owner in Zamboanga City, officials said.
Officials said a boy, who was near the explosion, was hit by shrapnel and injured as policemen gave chase on the men who tried to escape on a motorcycle after the daring attack at intersection just outside a military base.
Two other accomplices from the village of Mampang, believed to be hired killers, were also arrested following a subsequent police operation. The assailants lobbed two grenades, but only one had exploded under the truck and damaging two of its huge tires, officials said.
“Only one grenade exploded and we recovered the other one. No one among the four passengers were injured in the blast, but a boy who was watching cars, was injured and rushed to hospital,” a member of the police bomb squad told the Mindanao Examiner.
He said the passengers of the truck, including the owner of the Blue Shark Hotel, were uninjured from the attack, although shaken from the explosion. The motive of the attack is still unknown, but police has started its investigation to determine who ordered the failed assassination.
“There is an investigation going on and the arrest of the assailants will surely shed light as to the motive of the attack,” Army Colonel Buenaventura Pascual, commander of the anti-terrorist Task Force Zamboanga.
The attack occurred just as Zamboanga is celebrating its feast of the Virgin Mary.
Gun attacks and killings are not uncommon and almost a daily occurrence in Zamboanga City. In one of the attacks, the president of a university was shot dead by motorcycle gunmen near his house.
Since January this year, there were over 100 killings so far and most of them are perpetrated by guns-for-hire who are actively operating in Zamboanga. (Mindanao Examiner)
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