Manila (AsiaNews / Agencies) – The provisional toll from an explosion aboard a bus this morning on the outskirts of North Cotabato (Mindanao) is eight dead and eight wounded.
Cornelio Salinas, provincial police director, said the bomb was planted by unknown assailants inside the trunk of the bus. The officer said that "the explosion was so strong that it destroyed the roof of the vehicle”.
At the moment no one has claimed responsibility for the act and the identity of the aggressor is unknown, although some witnesses say they saw a man get off the bus shortly before the explosion. Police said the motive of the attack could be extortion, but do not exclude the possibility of a terrorist attack. In recent years the province of Cotabato has been subjected to numerous attacks and bombings by criminal gangs linked to local political leaders or Islamic extremists of Abu Sayyaf and Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF). But often these acts go unpunished because of the climate of impunity that characterizes the majority-Muslim region of Mindanao, where for over 40 years a war between Muslim rebels and the army has been waged.
The latest attack took place in August in Kapatagan (Lanao del Norte), where a group of armed men disguised as policemen set fire to a bus owned by the Rural Transit after killing the driver and two police officers at a check point.