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Subject: Philippine Mall Blasts Kill Five, Jemaah Islamiyah Suspected
Date: Fri, 18 Oct 2002 01:19:19 -0400

BY REUTERS

Excerpts from the report:

ZAMBOANGA, Philippines (Reuters) - Bombs believed planted by Muslim
extremists ripped through the main shopping district of a mostly Christian
city in the southern Philippines on Thursday killing five people and
wounding 144.

The military said the noon blasts were the work of radicals fighting for an
Islamic state in the south of the Roman Catholic nation and that
investigators were looking into the possible involvement of the militant
Jemaah Islamiah group.

Jemaah Islamiah is also suspected of involvement in the Bali carnage.

Police said they were questioning 16 people, including two Turkish nationals
and a Malaysian, over the Zamboanga explosions.

Asked if Muslim extremist groups might be involved, Zamboanga Mayor Maria
Clara Lobregat said: ``Most probably. They are the only ones who would do
this.

``One can only weep at what these terrorists have done.''

A spokeswoman for the Zamboanga city government said three women, a man and
a child had been killed and that the death toll could rise because two of
the wounded were in serious condition.

Witnesses said the dead man's head was blown off.

Zamboanga has been the scene in recent years of bombings blamed on the
Muslim Abu Sayyaf guerrillas, whom the United States has linked to al Qaeda,
prime suspect in last year's September 11 attacks on the United States.
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The blasts occurred about two weeks after a home-made bomb exploded near a
karaoke bar in the city, killing a U.S. soldier and two Filipino civilians.
Police blamed that explosion, on October 2, on the Abu Sayyaf.

Zamboanga, a city of 700,000 people 860 kmsouth of Manila, lies on the
southern coast of the politically volatile Mindanao island, where Muslims
have been fighting for a separate homeland for over three decades.

The region is home to most of the four million Muslim minority in an
overwhelmingly Christian country of 76 million.


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