Blast kills 1, wounds a dozen people at southern Philippine airport ahead of US envoy visit

Blast kills 1 at Philippine airport, a dozen hurt

ZAMBOANGA, Philippines — A powerful bombing killed a man and wounded about a dozen other people including a provincial governor Thursday at an airport in a southern Philippine city.

The U.S. ambassador, who was supposed to visit Zamboanga city on Friday, postponed the trip, saying it would be a burden to security personnel investigating the attack. He offered U.S. assistance in the probe.

The blast went off at 6:15 p.m. (1015 GMT, 6:15 a.m. EDT), just outside the arrival gate as passengers were leaving the city airport, said Col. Santiago Baluyot, head of the military’s Task Force Zamboanga. As the smoke cleared, police found a man’s mutilated body.

Investigators were trying to determine whether the man killed was a bomber, Baluyot said.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the bombing.

Zamboanga city has been targeted before in bombings by the al-Qaida-linked Abu Sayyaf group, which is notorious for kidnappings and beheadings. It is on the U.S. list of terrorist organizations, and the U.S. military has deployed special forces to the region to help train and arm Filipino troops fighting the militants.

“I deplore this heinous crime that victimized ordinary travelers,” U.S. Ambassador Harry Thomas said in a statement. He said he decided “to postpone my travel tomorrow in order to avoid distracting” police from investigating the attack.

Thomas had been due to fly to the airport.

Sakur Tan, governor of Sulu province — an Abu Sayyaf stronghold south of Zamboanga — was among the dozen wounded people. One person was in serious condition.

“I believe I was the target,” Tan told reporters, saying the device went off just a yard (meter) away from him. “I saw the flash very clearly.”

Tan was on the plane that arrived minutes earlier from Manila, about 540 miles (860 kilometers) north of Zamboanga. He sustained a small wound near his ribs. He was later discharged from hospital.

An enemy of the Abu Sayyaf militants, the Sulu governor has been targeted before. He escaped unharmed when a bomb-rigged motorcycle exploded near his convoy in Sulu in May last year. A town mayor and at least three security escorts were wounded in that attack.

Mayor Celso Lobregat said the man who was killed in Thursday’s attack “looks like he was the one who was carrying the explosive device.”

But he declined to comment on the type of bomb or who was the target.

No warnings or threats were received, Lobregat told reporters.

President Benigno Aquino III “condemns the violence” and ” instructed the relevant authorities to bring the perpetrators to justice,” said his spokesman, Edwin Lacierda.