Philippines Police Make Bombing Busts

A second day of bomb attacks terrorized a troubled island in the southern Philippines on Wednesday as security forces questioned suspected Muslim rebels about an airport blast that killed 21 people and wounded 117.

Despite the bloodshed, President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo ruled out a combat role for U.S. troops who have been providing counterterrorism training for Philippine forces fighting Muslim insurgents on Mindanao island.

A U.S. missionary, William P. Hyde, 59, of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, died in surgery from head and leg injuries suffered in the blast. He had gone to the airport to meet other American missionaries who had just arrived when the bomb went off.

"I just heard it explode to my side," said Barbara Wallis Stevens, 33, one of the missionaries, who was slightly wounded. "I was carrying my infant son so I grabbed my daughter and picked her up and ran away. I was afraid there could be more bombs."

Her 10-month-old son Nathan was hit by shrapnel in the liver, but a doctor at Davao Medical Center said he was out of danger.

An explosion in a department store in Cotabato City started a fire and triggered panic among shoppers and workers, but caused no casualties, said police inspector Ismael Ali. Two bombs were found at a gasoline station in nearby Kapatangan, police said.

The latest incidents happened as Arroyo visited the site of Tuesday's fatal blast at Davao airport on Mindanao. She lit candles for the victims and denounced the attack as "a brazen act of terrorism which shall not go unpunished."

Police investigating the Davao explosion said they had arrested nine people, including five suspected rebels of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front. The MILF has denied responsibility.

Susan Madrid, a spokeswoman for the Davao civil defense, said 21 people were killed, including an American missionary. Two died in a hospital overnight. She said the number of injured was lowered to 117 after some names were reported twice or others who were not injured at all were reported among the wounded.

Last week, the Philippines scotched a plan by Washington for about 1,000 American soldiers to be used in direct battle.

"We welcome their assistance. They have always said that they will help us in any way we want them to help us," Arroyo said of the U.S. military. "As a matter of policy I just draw the line at ground combat where I want our soldiers to do the fighting and not their soldiers."

Instructors from U.S. Special Forces are training Philippine soldiers in the city of Zamboanga, about 250 miles west of the scene of Tuesday's airport attack.

The target of the counterterrorism campaign is the Muslim extremist group Abu Sayyaf, which is notorious for kidnappings and killings and has been linked to the al-Qaida terror network.

An Abu Sayyaf spokesman on Wednesday reportedly claimed responsibility for the Davao bombing in comments to ABS-CBN TV network. But officials thought the MILF was to blame.

Police said the bomb was hidden inside a backpack planted in the middle of the airport's crowded waiting area.

At the airport, Arroyo placed a peach-colored rose in a shallow crater and prayed with Cabinet members and other officials. Earlier, workers brushed away blood stains inside the damaged terminal.

U.S. President George W. Bush condemned the attack as a "wanton terrorist act" and sent his condolences, White House press secretary Ari Fleischer said.

Interior Secretary Jose Lina said that five MILF members were arrested and were being questioned in connection with the bombing.

Davao Mayor Rodrigo Duterte said nine people were arrested on Wednesday. It wasn't clear if they include the five suspected rebels. He also said while he earlier opposed the deployment of U.S. troops, now "I would welcome any help from anybody to put an end to terrorism."

The site of Wednesday's department store blast was 106 miles west of Davao.

Kapatagan, where the gas station bombs were found, is about 131 miles to the city's northeast. There were no suspects in either incident.

The military has blamed MILF rebels for a string of attacks, including a car bombing at nearby Cotabato airport last month that killed one man.

Eid Kabalu, spokesman for the rebel group, which has been fighting for Muslim self-rule in the predominantly Roman Catholic Philippines for more than three decades, denied his group was responsible.

He said the explosions "might be a plot of the military" to extend the planned U.S.-Philippines exercises to Mindanao island and that his group was ready to cooperate in an investigation.

Defense Secretary Angelo Reyes said the government was boosting security at key sites throughout the country.

Arroyo has proposed a peace agreement with the MILF, but the rebels said they will not negotiate unless government troops withdraw from areas they captured last month.

Five almost simultaneous bomb blasts in Manila on Dec. 30, 2000, killed 22 people and wounded more than 100 others. In October last year, one U.S. soldier and two other people were killed in a bombing attack in Zamboanga.