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19, Including American, Killed In Philippine Airport Blast
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The damaged roof of a building at Davao Airport after a powerful bomb exploded at the airport
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MANILA,
March 4 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – Some 19 people,
including an American, were killed and more than 100 others, also
including Americans, were injured in a bomb blast Tuesday, March 4,
that hit Davao airport in the southern Philippines.
"I
am sad to say that one of the four Americans injured in the explosion
has died in hospital," U.S. embassy spokesman Ronald Post told
Agence France-Presse (AFP).
He
said he could not give further details, including their identities.
The
blast struck a shed outside the Davao airport terminal amid planned
deployment of U.S. troops on the nearby island of Jolo, a stronghold
of Abu Sayyaf rebels.
Another
bomb exploded at a bus depot in Davao city but no one was injured
while three others were wounded in a blast at a city health office in
the nearby city of Taguma shortly after the airport attack.
The
authorities shut down Davao airport as a precaution.
The
relatively peaceful Davao has 1.2 million people and is the largest
city of the southern Philippines.
"It's
a very powerful bomb. The waiting shed literally exploded," Davao
Vice Mayor Luis Bongoyan said of the airport blast.
"We
have suspects and we are running after them," Mindanao police
chief Edgardo Aglipay said without elaborating.
Aglipay
told GMA television the bomb had been planted in an abandoned
rucksack.
Government-run
Davao Medical Center listed 19 dead from the airport blast and more
than 50 injured, including at least nine Filipinos.
The
identities and nationalities of the other victims were not immediately
available.
Casualties
at other hospitals raised the number of injured to 114.
Radio
station DXDC placed the death toll at 30, without giving a source for
the figure, which officials could not immediately confirm.
Television
footage showed a long line of hospital beds full of bloodied patients
being attended to by green-suited medical staff.
The
powerful blast obliterated a shed used by passengers and well-wishers
outside the airport's passenger terminal, he said over ABS-CBN
television.
An
hour after the airport blast, ambulances and other emergency vehicles
were still picking up casualties from the street outside the airport,
cordoned off by yellow police tape and dozens of soldiers armed with
assault rifles.
"Several
Men" Held
Police
have arrested "several men" in connection with the deadly
airport bombing, President Gloria Arroyo said through her spokesman.
Arroyo
was informed by the national police that they have "already
several men in custody being interrogated for committing these
murders," her spokesman Ignacio Bunye said.
"This
is a brazen act of terrorism that will not go unpunished," Arroyo
said in a statement read on DZBB radio by Bunye.
"The
killing is a cowardly crime not only against the Filipino people but
against humanity itself."
Arroyo
was holding an emergency meeting of the cabinet oversight committee on
internal security to discuss the government response, he added.
The
Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) condemned the Davao bombing and
denied responsibility.
"We
are expressing our willingness to coordinate in any investigation for
the purpose of determining the real culprits in this bombing,"
MILF spokesman Eid Kabalu said in a radio interview.
He
said the 12,500-member group only attacked "military
targets".
The
military launched a major offensive against the MILF in central
Mindanao last month, killing nearly 200 fighters and displacing
214,000 civilians.
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