Bomb explodes at Catholic shrine near Manila, killing soldier

ZAMBOANGA, Philippines -- A bomb on a parked bicycle exploded near a crowded Roman Catholic shrine Sunday in the southern Philippines, killing a soldier and injuring 18 people. It was the fifth bombing this month.

The blast demolished stalls selling food, candles and other religious items outside the historical site of Fort Pilar in Zamboanga, a predominantly Christian port city about 530 miles south of Manila. The ground was splattered with blood.

Zamboanga was the target of twin blasts that tore through two department stores last week.

Investigators have yet to find or arrest those behind those explosions, which killed seven people and injured more than 150.

Sunday's bomb was concealed in either a box or a tin can and placed on a bicycle, witnesses said.

The vehicle was parked near a gate to Fort Pilar -- a complex that includes century-old remains of a Spanish fort, a shrine to the Virgin Mary and an open-air worship area where Mass is celebrated.

"There was a loud explosion and everybody was screaming," worshipper Fe Sanctuario said.

"I knew that it was a bomb because the explosion was so loud and many stalls selling Christian icons had been destroyed."

Although the area was crowded with worshippers, the turnout was not as great as past Sundays because of rainy weather and fears of another attack. The blast injured 18 people and killed a Filipino marine corporal assigned to guard the shrine's gate, police said.

Zamboanga was already under tight security after last week's explosions and an Oct. 2 bombing that killed three people, including a U.S. Green Beret. Officials blamed that blast -- which injured 25 others, including another American soldier -- on the al-Qaida-linked Abu Sayyaf.

More than 200 U.S. soldiers who joined a six-month counterterrorism exercise that ended in July were staying in two camps in Zamboanga. There were no immediate reports of foreigners being hurt in Sunday's explosion.

President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo's administration condemned the latest blast. Her press undersecretary, Bobby Capco, told the Radio Mindanao Network, "Let us not be threatened. Let's go on with what we've been doing because if we will be cowed, the terrorists would have emerged triumphant."

Two other bombings happened Friday in Manila. A grenade went off in Makati, the Philippines' main financial district. No one was hurt in that blast. But later, a bomb ripped open a bus in the capital and killed two people and injured 20.

Police have yet to pinpoint any group as being behind the bombings. But security officials suspect that the Zamboanga blasts may have been staged by the Abu Sayyaf -- which Philippine and U.S. officials have linked to al-Qaida -- or Muslim separatists to divert ongoing military offensives.

A police official, Napoleon Castro, said investigators were looking at the possibility of the involvement of the Jemaah Islamiyah, believed to be al-Qaida's main ally in Southeast Asia, in Friday's bus bombing. The attack was similar to a Dec. 30, 2000, bomb attack on a passenger bus -- one of five almost simultaneous blasts in metropolitan Manila which killed 22 people and were blamed on the group.