Car bomb recovered in southern Philippines


dpa German Press Agency
Published: Saturday January 20, 2007

Cotabato City, Philippines- An abandoned car rigged with
about 200 kilos of improvised explosives was recovered by police and
military operatives in the southern Philippines, an armed forces
spokesman said Sunday.
Lieutenant Colonel Julieto Ando, a regional military spokesman,
said the car bomb was recovered on Saturday parked at the side of a
road in Datu Saudi Ampatuan town in Maguindanao province, 960
kilometres south of Manila.

The car bomb was found as the military braced for retaliatory
attacks from the al-Qaeda-linked Abu Sayyaf rebel group for the death
of two top leaders - chieftain Khadafi Janjalani and main planner Abu
Solaiman - in separate clashes with government troops.

Ando said residents in the area tipped off the police about the
car, which was allegedly parked on the road since late Friday.

"The explosives were wired onto each other and it was fitted with
alarm clock as a timing device," he said. "The car bomb was intended
for a major attack."

Security forces also found in the car an 81-millimetre mortar
shell, three 60-millimetre mortar shells and one live shell of
shoulder-fired recoilless 90-millimetre anti-tank weapon.

Investigators were still determining the identities of the people
who left the car in the area.

On January 10, three explosions allegedly perpetrated by Islamic
militants rocked three cities in the southern region of Mindanao -
General Santos, Kidapawan and Cotabato - killing seven people and
wounding more than 30 others.

© 2006 - dpa German Press Agency