Powerful Blast Hits Southern Philippine Airport

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Wednesday, March 05, 2003

Powerful Blast Hits Southern Philippine Airport

At least 20 people were killed and nearly 100 injured as powerful bomb explosions hit Mindanao in the southern Philippines on Tuesday.

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At least 20 people were killed and nearly 100 injured as powerful bomb explosions hit Mindanao in the southern Philippines on Tuesday.

A bomb explosion at Davao International Airport killed at least19 people, including one American and injured 90 others, among whom three Americans, and the death toll may further rise.

Earlier, US embassy spokesman Ronald Post said, "I am sad to say that one of the four Americans injured in the explosion has died in hospital."

The blast went off at a waiting shed at the arrival area of theDavao International Airport at around 5:30 p.m. (0930 GMT) Tuesday,just a few minutes after a Cebu Pacific flight arrived at the airport and people packed the waiting area.

Shortly after the explosion at the Airport, another bomb exploded in Tagum, capital of Davao del Norte province at around 6:15 p.m. (1015 GMT), killing one person and injuring three others,

After the airport explosion, all flights to and from Davao cityhave been canceled and would reportedly resume Wednesday.

Philippine President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo later said the Philippine National Police (PNP) have already taken several men into custody for the suspected making of the Airport explosions.

Arroyo said, the PNP has responded quickly to the bombing, and "I have been informed that their men have already several men in custody being interrogated for committing these murders."

Arroyo ordered the PNP and the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) to set up a joint command center in Davao City that would undertake a massive operation to hunt down the bombers and their accomplices.

"I have ordered the PNP to expand their security perimeters around critical and heavily-populated centers, and the AFP to clear suspected lairs of terrorists around Davao City," she added.

Arroyo condemned the bombing, calling it "a brazen act of terrorism which will not go unpunished," and vowed to mobilize thefull powers of the Presidency to identify and capture not only theinhuman perpetrators of this crime but their co-conspirators as well.

Earlier, an emergency meeting of the Cabinet Oversight Committee on Internal Security was convened by Arroyo to discuss the incident which was assumed to be made by a kilo of C-4 explosives in a backpack.

So far, no individual or group has claimed responsibility for the incidents. The military said the explosions may be carried outby rebel groups such as the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, the AbuSayyaf group or the New People's Army.

MILF spokesman Eid Kabalu has denied that his group had a hand in the explosion.

Last month, the military overrun a MILF stronghold called Buliok complex in the south after days of fierce fighting that killed some 200 people, mostly MILF rebels.

The 12,000-strong MILF, the biggest rebel group in the country,has been fighting for an independent Islamic state in the southernPhilippines since 1978.

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