Abu Sayyaf blows up another bridge in Sulu

10/18/2009

Suspected members of the local Muslim terror group based in the South bombed a bridge before dawn yesterday in the southern island province of Sulu, the military said.

Armed Forces Western Mindanao Command (Westmincom) chief, Major Gen. Benjamin Dolorfino said around 3 a.m. unidentified men bombed the Lagton Bridge in Talipao town, damaging one of its lanes.

But despite the damage, the bridge was still passable, Dolorfino added.

He said the blast, which was generated by an explosive device whose type was yet to be known by the authorities, caused no casualties.

No one had immediately claimed responsibility for the bombing, but the military suspected it was either the handiwork of the Abu Sayyaf, a local Muslim extremist group linked by the Philippine and United States governments to the al-Qaeda terror network of Osama bin Laden, or rogue members of the Moro National Liberation Front, a former Muslim separatist group that made peace with Manila in 1996.

Dolorfino said the suspects’ possible intention was to ambush Marine troops crossing the bridge by initially hampering their movements and then launching a subsequent offensive, like they usually did.

Last month, suspected Abu Sayyaf gunmen planted a landmine on a roadside in Indanan town, also in Sulu, which was run over by a convoy of US and Philippine troops, initiating an ambush. Two American Marine soldiers and a Filipino soldier were killed in the attack.

Dolorfino surmised that the Abu Sayyaf may be running low on ammunition, prompting it to shift to the use of improvised explosive devices as a means to inflict casualties on government soldiers who have been sustaining their pursuit operations against the militants on Sulu and neighboring island province Basilan.

The military denounced the attack and accused the terror group of committing “economic sabotage.”

“This is another despicable act of economic sabotage that terrorists have inflicted on our peace-loving fellow Filipinos,” Westmincom spokesman Major Ramon Hontiveros said.

In the past few weeks, Sulu has been hit with a string of bomb attacks that targeted a number of both government- and private business-owned infrastructure.

Earlier this week, suspected Abu Sayyaf gunmen bombed a bridge and a mobile telephone transmission tower of communication company Globe in Indanan.

Small groups of US military advisers are stationed on Sulu and elsewhere in Mindanao, the southern region of the country, to train troops in how to combat the Abu Sayyaf.

The Abu Sayyaf, set up in the 1990s allegedly with money from the al-Qaeda, has been fighting for an independent Muslim homeland on Sulu and other areas of the South.

Gina P. Elorde, with AFP

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