9 people hurt in Zamboanga grenade attack

Bomb squad of the Task Force Zamboanga and the Zamboanga City Police Office look over the blast site near Marcian Business Hotel, along Climaco Avenue, Zamboanga City.

At least nine people were injured when a fragmentation grenade exploded near a hotel in downtown this city Wednesday night.

The grenade blast, just in front of Marcian Business Hotel along Climaco Avenue, came as fear of fresh rebel attack continued to grip in different parts of Mindanao.

Authorities said the grenade attack took place at around 6:30 p.m. in front of Marcian Business Hotel along Climaco Avenue.

The victims include passengers of a motorized tricycle and a motorcycle as well as passersby rushing home when the incident took place.

Police reported the explosion was apparently caused by an MK2 hand grenade, where its safety lever was recovered 20 meters away from the place of the incident.

Zamboanga City Police Office director Senior Supt. Lurimer Detran said that one of three men riding tandem in a motorcycle lobbed a hand grenade in front of the hotel.

Army Colonel Santiago Baluyot, commander of the Task Force Zamboanga, said two men riding in tandem on motorcycle tossed a grenade into a busy street.

The blast injured Roy Bornales, a security guard; and passersby Bernardo Bago; Geordani Ancheta, Christian Emperial, Halima Jumaani, and Shermaliim Abdulla.

No immediate names of four other casualties as of posting time. But authorities said the blast victims sustained minor injuries and have been declared out of danger.

Supt. Jose Bayani Gucela, police regional spokesman, said an MK2 fragmentation grenade was used in the attack.

"This kind of atrocity or act can be done by an organized criminal," he said.

Last week, the headquarters of the local police force was also attacked, although no one was hurt in the grenade blast.

But Gucela said the motive of last week's grenade blast was a grudge. He did not elaborate.

Police have also recovered August 15 a fragmentation grenade inside a local cinema after it failed to explode.

Mayor Celso Lobregat condemned the latest grenade attack, describing it as barbaric act done by people who want to create confusion, instill fear and sow terror.

The mayor, one of staunch critics of Moro Islamic Liberation Front, is opposed to the GRP-MILF Memorandum of Agreement, which seeks to expand the territory and powers of ARMM.

Under the agreement, some villages of Zamboanga City are proposed to be included in the expanded Muslim homeland.

Abu Sayyaf militants tied to al-Qaeda terror network have previously attacked Zamboanga City. It was not immediately known if the group was connected to the latest attack.

In May, a homemade bomb explosion ripped through a two-storey building near a military base in Zamboanga City killing three people and wounding more than a dozen others.

Authorities blamed the MILF for the bombing.