Bombing kills at least 14 in southern Philippines

MANILA, Philippines -- A bomb killed at least 14 people outside a busy department store in the southern Philippines on Sunday, an hour after a man called in a warning in the name of a Muslim extremist group, officials said. \nTwo other bombs went off in quick succession near a radio station and a bus terminal in General Santos, a largely Christian city of 800,000 people in a region where Muslim fundamentalists have been seeking an independent homeland. The series of blasts wounded at least 45 people. The dead included four children. \nA Radio Mindanao Network office in nearby Koronadal said it received a call an hour before the first blast from a man who had earlier called to complain about police boasts that the city was safe from terrorists. The man asked if the station wanted to cover bombings later that day. \nStation manager Elmer Ubaldo said he decided not to air the warning because he did not want to cause panic, but a warning also circulated via cell phone text message that 18 bombs had been planted around the city that would start exploding after lunchtime. \nThe caller identified himself as Abu Muslim al-Ghazie and said he represented al Harakatul al-Islamiyah, the formal name for the brutal Abu Sayyaf group. Other spokesmen for the group said they had no knowledge of Abu Sayyaf involvement. Police Chief George Aquisap blamed unspecified terrorists. \nThe Abu Sayyaf, believed to have ties to Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network, and the fundamentalist Moro Islamic Liberation Front have been blamed for setting off bombs in General Santos in the past. \nThe city is about 130 miles from Basilan island, where the Abu Sayyaf has been holding American missionaries Martin and Gracia Burnham and Filipino nurse Ediborha Yap for nearly 11 months. About 160 U.S. Special Forces troops are on the island to train Filipino troops assigned to crush the Abu Sayyaf. \nThe first bomb exploded in a three-wheel motorcycle taxi parked in a line about 30 feet in front of the Gensan Fitmart department store in General Santos' business district. \nThe blast shattered the store's glass panels. Blood was spattered around the parking area. Most of the casualties appeared to be taxi drivers, shoppers and bystanders. \nThe second bomb went off 34 minutes later near a radio station, followed several minutes afterward by the bus terminal blast, wounding several people, the city's disaster operations center said. \nBartolome Baluyot, police chief for the central Mindanao region, said two unexploded bombs were discovered under a truck parked in front of the store and were being detonated by the police bomb squad. \nThe injured were rushed to hospitals and clinics in the city, a little more than 600 miles southeast of Manila. Most businesses closed, and checkpoints were set up on major roads as part of a security clampdown. \nAn Indonesian man believed to be a key leader of the Jemaah Islamiyah, a Southeast Asian-based group with suspected links to al Qaeda, pleaded guilty Thursday in General Santos to explosives possession. \nFathur Rohman Al-Ghozi was sentenced to 12 years in prison. He told police he had planned a series of bombings that killed 22 people in Manila on Dec. 30, 2000, and in January, he led police to a buried cache of more than a ton of TNT, detonating cords and M-16 rifles in General Santos. \nThe U.S. State Department renewed an appeal Thursday to Americans to exercise caution while in the Philippines. \nIn March, several bombs without triggering devices were discovered in Manila. A rebel group claimed responsibility and has threatened to plant more bombs.