Philippines bombing highlights complex web of terror

The attack in Davao came at about 5 pm on Tuesday, as a crowd gathered in a open-sided shed a short distance from the main airport terminal to greet friends and relatives arriving from Manila, the capital.

The Philippine police said the bomb, which had been left in a knapsack, injured more than 150 people when it ripped through the crowd. Among the dead was William Hyde, an American missionary from Iowa. Another American missionary and her two children were also wounded.

Until Tuesday's attack, Davao was one of the most peaceful cities on troubled Mindanao, where fighting between the MILF and Filipino troops, as well as the ubiquitous kidnap gangs, spawns hundreds of casualties each year. Wednesday, a bomb exploded in a store in the city of Cotabato. No casualties were reported.

One of the reasons for Davao's relative peace has been its distance from Abu Sayyaf - which has mostly operated near Zamboanga City and islands south of there, about 200 miles west of Davao. That distance is why Filipino officials downplayed a claim made by Abu Sayyaf commander Hamsiraji Sali that he ordered Tuesday's attack. Mr. Sali has been tied to a bomb attack in Zamboanga last October that killed an American soldier.

"We can't take (Sali's claims) at face value. They could be ... efforts to mislead the investigation," said Vidal Querol, the national police operations director.

The military insists the MILF is its prime target, pointing out that the group would have a motive for striking back: In February, the Philippine Army led a massive assault on a mountain MILF base not far from Davao, killing more than 100 rebels. Though the MILF retaliated by bombing government power installations, spokesman Mr. Kabalu claims the group does not engage in terrorism.

A third, and potentially more frightening, explanation exists. Filipino and regional intelligence officials say that in the 1990s Muslim militants - including key operatives in the Al Qaeda-linked Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) - were allowed to train at MILF bases on Mindanao, building personal relationships with MILF members.

Philippine investigators say some MILF members. impatient with the group's talks with the government, have drifted in a radical direction. Indonesian JI operative Fathur Rahman Al-Ghozi, in jail for bombing a Manila train station in 2000 and killing 22 people, has said that he had help from an MILF commander.

"I think there's a very real chance that as the MILF feels more pressure, some of its members are becoming more radical,'' says a Filipino investigator. "Over time, we could see the splintering of the MILF into more dangerous pieces."

Kabalu says there's no validity to this concern. "This idea that we have lost commands, or members acting on their own, is wrong." Instead, he alleges that the Philippine military is seeking to pin the Davao blast on his group to convince the government to abandon peace talks. "They're trying to discredit us."

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