Bomb on bus kills at least three, injures 23 in Philippine subu

QUEZON CITY, Philippines -- A bomb tore through a passenger bus in a Manila suburb Friday night, killing at least three people and injuring 23 -- the latest in a series of bombings this month in a jittery country where U.S.-trained troops are battling a Muslim rebel group linked to al-Qaida.

There were no immediate suspects or claims of responsibility, police said. The passenger who brought the explosive aboard the bus was believed to be among the dead, but it was unclear whether the blast was intended as a suicide attack.

"I was sleeping, then there was a very loud explosion," teenage student Merlyn Villareal, who was aboard the bus but was not injured, told GMA7 television as she fought back tears. "There was chaos, and I was pinned down. I was kicked around and found myself outside the bus."

The explosion in Quezon City came a day after two deadly bombings in the southern Philippines, and hours after a grenade blast in the capital's financial district.

Officials said the Abu Sayyaf, which the Philippine and U.S. governments have linked to al-Qaida, was the most likely suspect for Thursday's bombings in Zamboanga city, which killed seven people and injured more than 150.

The Abu Sayyaf recently threatened attacks in retaliation for an ongoing military offensive against it, and has been blamed for an Oct. 2 bombing in Zamboanga that killed four people, including an American Green Beret.

Some 260 American troops remain in Zamboanga in the southern Philippines following a six-month U.S. counterterrorism training exercise aimed at helping Filipino troops fight the Abu Sayyaf.

Earlier Friday, President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo visited the Zamboanga bombing sites, saying the country's bomb attacks have gone from "bad to worst" and urged her people to help fight terrorists.

"Terrorism cannot survive for long in an unfriendly environment," Arroyo said. "Let us give terrorism the unfriendly environment."

The bus explosion took place at 10 p.m. on the EDSA highway, a major thoroughfare. Traffic was backed up more than a mile after the bombing.

The blast in the back of the blue Golden Highway company bus ripped off its roof and part of its sides and sent debris flying 20-30 yards away.

Vidal Querol, national police operations chief, said investigators were gathering fragments from the bomb to analyze.

"It was a very powerful bomb for this bus to be wrecked like this," said Napoleon Castro, a Quezon City police official.

National security adviser Roilo Golez said the way bombing was carried out "is very similar" to the Dec. 30, 2000, bomb attacks in Manila that killed 22 people and were linked to Jemaah Islamiyah, a Southeast Asian-based Muslim group suspected of links to al-Qaida.

The United States suspects Jemaah Islamiyah of involvement in last weekend's bombings that killed at least 183 people in the Indonesian island of Bali. The group's spiritual leader, Abu Bakar Bashir, is a suspect in a series of church bombings across Indonesia in December 2000.

No one has been charged for the bombings at several public facilities in Manila in late 2000. But Fathur Rohman Al-Ghozi, an Indonesian, told police he helped plan them. He pleaded guilty to explosives possession charges in April and was sentenced to 10-12 years in prison.

He was arrested in January and led police to a buried stash of 1.2 tons of TNT that allegedly were to be used for attacks on Western targets in Singapore. Philippine prosecutors said Monday they have strong evidence to charge two foreigners and two Filipinos who allegedly provided money to buy the explosives.

Like Al-Ghozi, the four are believed to be members of Jemaah Islamiyah.

The grenade that exploded early Friday in Manila's financial district caused no injuries and slight damage to one vehicle. A second unexploded grenade was found nearby. Officials said they believed the explosion was unrelated to terrorism.

The bus blast was the latest in a series of bombings in the country.

On Oct. 10, a bomb tore through a bus station in Kidapawan city in the south, killing at least six people and injuring two dozen. Authorities said suspects in the attack included the Abu Sayyaf, Muslim separatists, communist rebels and extortionists.