Mindanao's 'city of flowers' cowers in constant fear

Zamboanga City: Restaurant owner Lyra Quitay is blind in one eye. Her arms, chest and legs bear painful black scars and her right hand is so gnarled that it resembles a claw when she signs her name.

In October 2001, a terrorist's bomb ripped through the downtown market where Quitay runs a tiny kitchen, instantly killing her security guard and blowing a hole in her life.

The guard had gone to investigate an abandoned cart; when he opened the lid on a pot, it exploded - ripping off his head and leaving Quitay with injuries so severe that she still wakes up crying at night.

"Every time I even hear the word 'bomb' I get nervous," said Quitay, 43. "It's the trauma of living in Zamboanga City."

On the front lines of the Philippines' campaign against terrorism, this bustling port city on the island of Mindanao has become an armed camp, a community under siege. At the heart of the violence is a network of terrorist groups waging war against the government, using the jungle as cover to train recruits and organise strikes.

Moving through the dense terrain like phantoms in the mist, rebel armies have staged repeated disappearing acts that often baffle Philippine government forces.

Just when authorities think the insurgents are on the run, they resurface to detonate a bomb, abduct a hostage or conduct a public execution, leaving Zamboanga City's 700,000 residents continually on edge.

From 2002 to 2007, the latest period for which statistics are available, hundreds of attacks killed 500 people and injured 2,000 in the southern islands of Mindanao, Jolo, Basilan and Tawi Tawi. Scores of bombings have taken place in Zamboanga, this self-named "City of Flowers," about 460 miles south of Manila. Just as many have been discovered and defused.

Pedestrians here can stand on a street corner and point to half a dozen bomb sites: a cinema, a mall, churches, department stores and a supply store.

Sometimes, the killings come on successive days forcing residents to avoid congregating in groups or, for the most fearful, venturing out at all.