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Title: MINDANAO BOMBINGS - COTABATO, LANAO DEL NORTE, SULU AND ILIGAN CITY View count: 2550 Rating: 1.0 (1 ratings) Description: US troops join Cotabato bombing probe Nation Written by Rosa May de Guzman / Correspondent Tuesday, 07 July 2009 01:45 COTABATO CITY—US bomb experts in the Philippines are helping in the investigation on the explosion on Sunday outside a Roman Catholic church here that left five people dead and wounded 45 others, a military official said on Monday. The Army official also said the perpetrators were newly trained bombers by foreign terrorists hiding in the country. US forces are helping their counterparts by providing support. They have their own bomb experts and they would share analyses with each other, Maj. Randolph Cabangbang, spokesman for the Armed Forces Eastern Mindanao Command, said. But they [US troops] are not directly involved in the hunt against the bombers. They would analyze if foreign terrorists had a hand in the attack, he added. Hundreds of US troops are in the country, particularly in Mindanao, training Filipino troops and doing humanitarian missions under the RP-US Visiting Forces Agreement. Cabangbang said the attackers who detonated a homemade bomb in front of a lechon restaurant in front of the Immaculate Conception Cathedral here have been trained by al-Qaeda-affiliated militants working with the Special Operation Group (SOG) of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), an accusation vehemently denied by the rebel group. Theres an ongoing operation to capture those terrorists. We have a directive from Manila to augment our bomb experts and to provide additional bomb sniffing dogs, Cabangbang said. Terrorist hiding in the country include Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) bomb experts Omar Patek and Dulmatin, both accused of several bombings in Mindanao. Patek is believed to have served as the assistant for the field coordinator of the Bali bombings while his companion Dulmatin, an electronics specialist trained in al-Qaeda camps in Afghanistan, is a senior figure of JI. Another terrorist, Zulkifli bin Hir, also known as Marwan, has been in the country since 2003 and has a $5- million bounty on his head. They were here in the country and trained the SOG of MILF rebels. But as of now, we have not seen any indication regarding their participation in Sundays bombing, Cabangbang said. Lt. Col. Jonathan Ponce, spokesman for the Army 6th Infantry Kampilan Division, said soldiers captured right after the blast a suspected bomber and they turned him over to the police. The suspect was trapped because hes not familiar with the city, Ponce said. But MILF spokesman Eid Kabalu branded as pure harassment the militarys accusation. He said blaming the attack on the MILF is unfair as the fronts leaders have been working for interreligious dialogue in Mindanao. We are not responsible for the bombing. We even condemn this attack. We have a policy against violence and we are clear on that, said Kabalu. Cotabato Auxiliary Bishop Jose Colin Bagaforo has challenged the authorities to solve the crime and arrest as soon as possible the personalities behind the attack. The fresh bombing attacks in the region occurred as the military intensified its offensive against rogue Muslim rebel commanders Abdullah Macapaar and Ameril Umbra Kato who were responsible for the death of 60 civilians in a deadly rampage in August last year that was condemned by international aid agencies. The attacks prompted the government to suspend peace talks with the MILF and order a massive assault on Katos and Macapaars forces. The fighting has affected more than 600,000 people. Peace talks between the government and the 11,800-strong MILF collapsed in August 2008 after the two sides failed to sign a territory agreement as scheduled, prompting some radical rebels to launch deadly attacks on Christian communities in the region. Rights groups, meanwhile, have raised concern that military operations in Mindanao could intensify with the latest bombings in Cotabato City. The Civil Society Initiatives for International Humanitarian Law (CSI-IHL) has kicked off the commemorative events to the 60th anniversary of the Geneva Conventions on August 12. The event held at the UP Sunken Garden on Friday was highlighted with a dove-kite flying by civil-society groups and officials of the Commission on Human Rights. The irony of the situation demands a meaningful and transcendent observance of the Conventions, said Ernesto Anasarias, convener of the CSI-IHL. In the Philippines, he said hundreds of thousands of persons were forced to flee their homes in the more than a decade conflict between the MILF and the government. The rights group also feared that the latest bombings in Cotabato City may prompt more military action in the conflict-stricken province. (With Estrella Torres) Tags: pinaswatch, ayawgloria, mar, roxas, chiz, escudero, richard, gordon, gilberto, teodoro, loren, legarda, bayani, fernando, reynato, puno, jejomar, binay, joseph, estrada, 2010, presidentiables, miriam, santiago, gloria, macapagal, arroyo, mike, jose, de, venecia, zte, scam, scandal, corruption, arnel, pineda, charice, pempengco, lacson, villar, jocjoc, bolante, fertilizer, fund, poverty, juana, change, chacha, con-ass, philippines, manila, boracay, cebu, mindanao, garcilliano, manny, pacquiao, pacman, gma, sarah, geronimo, lozada, nbn, pangandaman, Author: PINASWATCH10 |
