Red Alert Iligan: War has broken out!

August 17, 2008

At least three people were wounded in two separate explosions Sunday in the southern Philippines, officials said.

Police and military authorities said two improvised explosive devices (IED) went off 20 minutes apart in two budget hotels in Iligan City.

“Three persons are wounded in the [blasts] and we have deployed soldiers to help policemen secure the area,” Army Brig. Gen. Hilario Atendido, commander of a military task force.

He said the first blast occurred around 5.30 p.m. at the Traveler’s Inn, where three people were wounded and another exploded later at the Caprice Lodge. No group claimed responsibility for the twin blasts in Iligan, one of several areas being claimed by Muslim rebels as part of the ancestral domain.

Meanwhile, radio dzBB’s Iligan City affiliate reported Sunday night that the explosions came a week after text messages circulated that some establishments would be bombed.

Government troops also disarmed an IED planted near a school in North Cotabato, where fresh fighting between security and Muslim rebel forces erupted on Friday.

Authorities are also in high alert in North Cotabato after civilians on Friday discovered an improvised explosive device in Mlang town, a day after policemen arrested a would-be-attacker and a self-confessed member of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front at the town’s market after an explosive he was carrying went off prematurely.

On Thursday, soldiers also defused a powerful IED at a bus depot in North Cotabato’s Kidapawan City. The province had been attacked in the past by Moro rebels and members of the Indonesian terror group called Jema’ah Islamiyah and the local militant groups Abu Sayyaf and the Al-Khobar.

Troops on Wednesday regained control of 15 villages in North Cotabato province after a weeklong battle with MILF forces that left more than two dozen rebels and soldiers dead and wounded and over 160,000 people fleeing their homes.

Some 800 rebels occupied the villages after clashing with government militias over a land dispute and the fighting eventually spread to other areas.

Update as of August 18,2008

9:34am

6 Priests and a couple of civilians were taken hostage by the MILF rebels. Their status is still uknown. Arsons and massacres are happening now in Kauswagan, Lanao Del Norte.