Ramadan day 1.
DIGOS, Philippines (AFP) — Five people were killed and 32 others were wounded when a powerful bomb ripped through a packed passenger bus in the southern Philippines on Monday, police and disaster officials said.
The blast, caused by an improvised explosive device, tore through the bus, which was parked inside a terminal in the city of Digos on troubled Mindanao island, they said.
No one immediately claimed responsibility for the incident.
Officials had warned the public to brace for possible attacks by Muslim separatist rebels, who are on the run from a military offensive on Mindanao.
The renegade guerrillas from the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) are responsible for a wave of deadly attacks this month on Mindanao. More than 100 rebels as well as more than 40 civilians and soldiers have been killed.
The clashes have put on hold peace talks between the government of President Gloria Arroyo and the MILF, which recently warned that the upsurge in violence could lead to a full-blown war in the mainly Roman Catholic country.
Police said they were also looking at the possibility the attack could have been carried out by a Muslim crime group known as the Al-Khobar gang as the bus firm, Metro Shuttle, had apparently received threats.
The gang is composed mostly of foreign Muslim rebels and preys on businesses in the south.
Provincial police chief Cesario Darantinao said that members of the gang were believed to be responsible for another bomb attack on a Metro Shuttle bus last month. That attack, also in Digos, killed three people.