Manila defuses Embassy bomb

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MANILA, Nov 28, (AFP): Police defused a bomb near the US embassy in the Philippine capital Monday, with militants who had declared allegiance to the Islamic State (IS) group likely behind the attempted terrorist attack, authorities said. A taxi passenger dropped the mortar bomb with a mobile phone detonator in a rubbish bin about 200 metres (650 feet) from the embassy along one of Manila’s busiest roads, but a street sweeper found it and alerted authorities, police said.

“This is an attempted act of terrorism,” national police chief Ronald dela Rosa told reporters, adding he believed the Maute Islamic militant group currently facing a military offensive in the southern Philippines was the prime suspect. “Because of an ongoing police/military operation there, (the militants) have many casualties. We can theorise that this is a diversion to loosen our operations.” Police said they detonated the bomb just over an hour after it was discovered. The Maute gang was also blamed for a bombing in President Rodrigo Duterte’s home town in the southern city of Davao in September that killed 15 people.

The military has since Thursday been battling dozens of Maute gang members holed up in an abandoned government building in the mainly Muslim rural town of Butig on Mindanao island, about 800 kms (500 miles) south of Manila. Thirteen soldiers have been injured in the fighting, military spokesman Brigadier General Restituto Padilla told reporters. He said 19 militants had been killed, although none of those bodies had been recovered and the death toll could not be verified.

Fighting continued on Monday. Padilla supported the police theory of who was behind Monday’s attempted bombing. “It is possible that these groups are doing this to help their fellow terrorists and divert (government) attention,” Padilla said. Muslim groups have waged a decades-long armed independence struggle in the south of the mainly Catholic Philippines that is believed to have claimed more than 120,000 lives.

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