Al-Qaeda group claims Philippines blasts
Monday, 14 February 2005 16:46Eleven people were killed in three bomb attacks in the Philippines today, and at least 130 were injured.
Abu Sayyaf, a group linked to al-Qaeda, said it carried out two of the attacks, on the island of Mindanao in the cities of Davao and General Santos.
There was also an explosion in Manila's business district less than an hour after the southern blasts.
Four people were killed at a shopping mall in the southern city of General Santos.
A grenade attack at a bus terminal in Davao killed a young boy.
In Manila, six people were killed in an explosion on a bus at a commuter terminal near the crowded Glorietta mall, major hotels and the nation's financial and diplomatic core.
Abu Solaiman, a senior Abu Sayyaf leader, said on radio his group was responsible for the Davao and General Santos attacks.
Nearly 5,000 troops are on the southern island of Jolo, in the eighth day of fierce fighting with about 800 Abu Sayyaf rebels and renegade members of the Moro National Liberation Front, which signed a peace deal with the government in 1996.
