Cotabato City, Philippines - Three people were wounded when
a grenade exploded inside the office of a US-funded development
organization in the southern Philippines, police said Wednesday.
Unidentified suspects lobbed two grenades Tuesday evening into the
Growth with Equity in Mindanao (GEM) office in Pikit town in North
Cotabato province, 930 kilometres south of Manila, said Senior
Superintendent Federico Dulay, provincial police director.
The first grenade exploded, injuring two engineers and a field
worker and damaging office equipment, he said. The second grenade was
a dud, he said.
Provincial Governor Emmanuel Pinol condemned the attack, which he
said could be related to extortion demands received recently by GEM
workers for millions of pesos in 'protection money.'
'It is very unfortunate when these people, who have been working
on a road network for our poor people in Pikit, are harassed by
extortionists,' he said.
GEM is a non-governmental organization funded by the US Agency for
International Development. It oversees development projects in the
troubled southern region of Mindanao.
The attack was the third blast in seven days in Mindanao.
On Sunday, a bomb wounded one woman in a farming village in
Midsayap town.
On April 18, two people, including the suspected bomber, were
killed when a homemade bomb planted on a motorcycle exploded in
Cotabato City.
Some parts of Mindanao have been the scene of decades of armed
conflict as Muslim factions in the region have fought to become
independent from the largely Christian Philippines.
Mindanao has also been hit in the past by terrorist attacks
perpetrated by al-Qaeda-linked Abu Sayyaf rebels and Jemaah Islamiyah
militants, who are operating in the area.
© 2007 dpa - Deutsche Presse-Agentur 
USA
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