Security forces on full alert after Philippine blast claims 14

Security forces across the Philippines were on full alert Monday as police probed a bombing that claimed 14 lives and wounded scores of other people in the southern port city of General Santos, officials said. An explosion from an improvised bomb ripped through the public market of the city of half a million people on Sunday, killing 14 and wounding 70 others, according to a revised official tally. The military earlier put the toll at 15 dead and 58 wounded. General Santos is one of the biggest cities on the southern island of Mindanao, which has been troubled by decades of Muslim separatist rebellion as well as Islamic militants. A similar blast blamed on Islamic militants left several people dead at a General Santos shopping mall in April 2001.President Gloria Arroyo condemned Sunday’s attack “and hopes the perpetrators will be brought to justice at the soonest possible time,” her spokesman Ignacio Bunye said. Police and military authorities downplayed speculation that the latest bombing was politically motivated. National police chief Edgardo Aglipay said it could have been linked to a “recent quarrel” between a Muslim group and Christians for rental space at the city’s meat market, which was devastated by the blast. “Of course, we are not discounting other groups,” said Aglipay, who flew to General Santos early Monday to supervise the probe. Full Story