MANILA, April 20 (Reuters) - A powerful blast ripped through a bus terminal in the southern Philippines on Monday wounding foru people, an army spokesman said, blaming the attack on a rogue faction of Muslim guerrillas. The explosion, believed to have been caused by a crude bomb, also shattered glass panels of nearby commercial establishments in North Cotabato province, Major Randolph Cabangbang, an army spokesman, told reporters. "Nobody specialises in such terrorist operations other than the lawless Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) group," Cabangbang said, adding it was the second bombing attack on Monday on the southern island of Mindanao. Two crude bombs exploded at dawn near Iligan City, damaging a 100-metre (328-foot) bridge linking the Catholic-dominated urban centre to Muslim towns on Lanao del Norte province. Cabangbang said government engineers were still checking the structural damage to the bridge and re-routed traffic to avoid an accident. Security forces have been battling three rogue MILF field commanders in the south since August 2008 after talks on carving out an ancestral homeland for Muslims in the south of the mainly Catholic state collapsed. The conflict has killed 300 people since then and displaced tens of thousands from their homes and farms. (Reporting by Manny Mogato; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan and Bill Tarrant)
Anti-riot policemen block a theater artist members who protest outside the US Embassy in Manila April 1, 2009 to dramatize the sufferings and passion of the people as the predominantly Catholic ...
