Cotabato, Philippines: Two powerful bombs rocked the southern Philippines hours after police killed three members of the Al Qaida-linked Abu Sayyaf militant group, authorities said on Monday.
No one was hurt in the explosions, which came as security was heightened in the troubled south following the police assault on Jolo island Sunday.
"We are establishing the motives. We have alerted our troops," regional military spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Randolph Cabangbang said after the blasts.
A bomb ripped through a house in the town of Sultan Kudarat before dawn on Monday, while another explosion went off outside a hotel in Cotabato City late Sunday, police said.
Both areas are far from Jolo, although the militants are also known to operate there.
It was not immediately clear if the explosions were related to Sunday's offensive, although police and military had earlier warned of retaliatory attacks from the Abu Sayyaf.
Police commandos killed three Abu Sayyaf members Sunday, including Gafur Jumdail, brother of Abu Jumdail, one of the group's top operatives.
The Abu Sayyaf is a small gang of Islamic militants blamed for the country's worst terrorist attacks, including a ferry bombing that left over 100 dead in Manila Bay in 2004.
Intelligence services say it was started partly with funding from the Al-Qaeda network of Osama bin Laden.
The group is on the US government's list of wanted foreign terrorist organisations. Two Americans seized with a group of tourists in 2002 were killed in captivity.
