More Than a Dozen Dead in Davao Airport Blast

At least 16 people were killed and 20 others injured Tuesday in a bomb attack at Davao airport in Mindanao, officials and reports said. The powerful blast at about 5:15 pm obliterated a waiting shed outside the airport’s passenger terminal as scores of passengers queued to get into the building to board two Manila-bound flights. Ambulances and other emergency vehicles were still picking up casualties from the street outside the airport, cordoned off by yellow police tape and dozens of soldiers armed with assault rifles. Many of the victims, who included children, were rushed to the Davao City Medical Center, GMA network television said, adding that its reporter counted 16 dead and 20 injured in the hospital. Philippine National Police Director Hermogenes Ebdane told GMA-7’s evening newscast Frontpage that 17 people were dead and at least 60 injured. At least 80 other people were injured, said Davao Vice Mayor Luis Bongoyan, speaking to a local radio station by telephone from a Davao hospital. “It’s a very powerful bomb. The waiting shed literally exploded,” he said. Southern Philippines military chief Lieutenant General Narciso Abaya, speaking from Zamboanga city, said he received an initial report of at least seven dead. Full Story