Three wounded in grenade attack in S Philippine church

Masked gunmen lobbed grenades inside a Catholic church in southern Philippines early Sunday, wounding three persons, police and military said.

The grenades were hurled by two masked gunmen as dozens of parishioners attended the early Sunday service in Kalilangan town, in Mindanao's Bukidnon province, said Delilah Panes, a local police investigator.

Lieutenant Colonel Dominic Triumph Bagaipo, spokesperson of the army's 4th Infantry Division, told Xinhua by phone, "Fortunately the explosives did not go off properly causing only three injuries. It's a police matter but the army will provide support (in the investigations)."

No group claimed responsibility for the attack but the military blamed al-Qaeda linked militants in previous attacks.

Last year, six people were killed when militants detonated a remote controlled bomb outside a Catholic Church in the southern Philippine city of Cotabato.

Source: Xinhua