ZAMBOANGA CITY (Mindanao Examiner / Sept. 20, 2013) – A powerful bomb explosion late Friday ripped through a passenger bus and killing 3 people in Zamboanga City in southern Philippines where two weeks of fighting between security and rebel forces left over 100 soldiers and rebels dead.
Army officials said an improvised explosive was left under a passenger seat and exploded inside a bus depot in the coastal town of Labuan. The bus, owned by Biel Transit, just returned from a daylong trip shuttling village passengers to downtown Zamboanga and back.
The blast was powerful that it totally destroyed the roof of the bus and damaged several others parked nearby.
Bomb experts sifted through debris looking for shrapnel and pieces of evidence to determine what type of explosive device was used and what they recovered were the decapitated bodies of three people – two teenage bus washers, Hudson Guinilac and Allison Saavedra; and the bus conductor Meliton Orquijo.
The driver, Bello Domingo de Jesus, who was walking near the bus, was wounded from the explosion.
“It is very tragic. Those who were killed in the bus were really hard working people, especially the bus washers. We mourn their deaths,” one man, who is a neighbor of two of the victims, said.
No individual or claimed responsibility for the attack, but Col. Androlino Colina, commander of an army anti-terror task force, warned citizens to stay vigilant and report to authorities any suspicious or abandoned baggage they see.
“We appeal to everyone to report to us any suspicious or abandoned baggage and please do not touch them,” he said.
The blast occurred near a penal farm where authorities would put dozens of captured Moro National Liberation Front rebels after processing them at a police base.
Hundreds of rebels stormed several villages on September 9 and took over 180 civilians and used them as shield against security forces, but officials said at least 175 people were freed, escaped or rescued since the violence erupted. And that about two dozen more are believed being held captive by rebels, who split into several groups.
Security officials said 13 soldiers and three policemen, including 81 rebels were killed in the fighting. The clashes forced more than 100,000 people to flee their homes and resulted to a humanitarian crisis in Zamboanga and severely affected the economy of the provinces of Basilan, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi.
Sporadic clashes still continue in the villages of Santa Barbara and Santa Catalina where they rebels are scattered with their hostages. (Mindanao Examiner)
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