Two injured in market bomb attack in southern Philippines

Mindanao: Two vendors at a public market in the southern Philippines were injured in a bomb blast last Tuesday, the military said in a belated report on Wednesday.

The vendors were inside a vegetable stall when the improvised explosive device was detonated at the market in a town in Sultan Kudarat province, Army spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Jonathan Ponce said.

The victims were rushed to a nearby hospital, he said, adding that witnesses reported seeing a suspicious-looking man who left a backpack in a trash bin before the blast

"The bomb was fashioned from a 60-millimetre mortar shell rigged to a timing device," Ponce said, quoting initial investigation reports.

"The incident may have been carried out by renegade members of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF)," he said.

Earlier this week, four people were injured when a bomb exploded in a passenger bus in North Cotabato province in the south. Earlier the same day, a bomb destroyed a bridge in the city of Iligan, also in the south.

Separatist MILF rebels are known to have a stronghold in central Mindanao. Other armed groups are also involved in extortion activities in central Mindanao and their involvement is not being ruled out for the recent attacks.