Bomb Injures 30 In Philippines

Authorities on Monday were trying to determine who was responsible for a ferry bombing in the southern Philippines over the weekend that wounding at least 30 people, including nine children.

The MV. Dona Ramona was docked at the wharf at Lamitan on Basilan island early Sunday as it prepared to depart with more than 300 passengers for nearby Zamboanga city when the bomb went off. At least six people were badly burned, including a soldier.

The south is the homeland of the country's Muslim minority and a decades-old Islamic separatist insurgency.

Army Brig. Gen. Raymundo Ferrer, who rushed to the scene on Sunday, said no one has claimed responsibility for the attack, but the al Qaeda-linked Muslim extremist group Abu Sayyaf, which has a presence on Basilan, was a prime suspect.

He said a firebomb hidden in a cardboard box filled with old clothes apparently exploded in the ferry's canteen on the lower deck, citing a statement by the skipper and the nature of the victims' wounds.

"It's an IED," said Ferrer, the army commander in Basilan, referring to an improvised explosive device — the military term for homemade bombs.

A suspicious-looking man left the bomb on a counter in the canteen at the rear of the ferry then hurriedly disembarked, Ferrer told The Associated Press by telephone, citing several witnesses.

He said people smelled burning powder or chemicals before the blast, minutes before the steel-hulled ferry's scheduled departure.

Ferry purser Nicholas Urciada, 61, said he was walking near the canteen when a loud explosion ripped through the ferry.

Fearing another blast, "I sat down and covered my face with my hands. I heard people running away on the upper deck yelling, `Bomb! Bomb!" Urciada said by telephone from a Lamitan hospital, where he was being treated for burns on his left arm.

Last year, a bomb went off on a ferry in Manila Bay, killing 116 people in the country's worst terror attack. Two bombs wounded 30 people in southern Zamboanga city early this month. Both attacks have been blamed on the Abu Sayyaf group.

Troops and police have been put on alert in major cities in the southern region of Mindanao because of possible diversionary attacks as the military wages a nearly 2-month-old offensive to capture a group of Abu Sayyaf members, including the group's chieftain Khaddafy Janjalani, in southern Maguindanao province.

At least five homemade bombs believed planted by Muslim militants have been found and safely defused by authorities across Mindanao since July due to intensified patrols and random checks in public areas, the military's Southern Command said.

The Abu Sayyaf, which is on U.S. and European lists of terrorist organizations, has been blamed for a number of other bombings. Philippine security officials say the group also has ties with the Jemaah Islamiyah network, which has cells in several Southeast Asian countries.