US bomb experts join probe of Philippines bus blasts that killed 1, wounded 12

KORONADAL, Philippines: U.S. explosives experts are assisting in a probe into two bombs that ripped through a crowded bus terminal in the southern Philippines killing one passenger and injuring 12 more, police said Saturday.

Two U.S. military bomb experts inspected the scene of Friday's blasts at Koronadal city in South Cotabato province on Saturday police Senior Superintendent Robert Kiunisala said.

The U.S. investigators — part of a contingent conducting joint training exercises with the Philippine military in nearby Shariff Kabunsuan province — are trying "to determine if the attack bore signatures of terror groups active in (the southern region of) Mindanao," Kiunisala said.

Kiunisala said the blasts may have been carried out by extortionists linked to Islamic militants, and that it was the third attack targeting the same bus company since the beginning of July.

He said police suspect the Alcobar gang — a loose group of renegade guerrillas from the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, which is in peace talks with the government, as well as members linked to the Abu Sayyaf and al-Qaida-linked Jemaah Islamiyah terror group.

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The gang called the company to demand money shortly before the blasts, he said.

A 31-year-old Protestant pastor was killed instantly when the first bomb — left among baggage to be loaded on a bus — exploded at the bus terminal Friday, and 12 other people were wounded, Kiunisala said.

The second bomb, which went off inside an empty bus, injured no one.

Police suspect the attackers detonated the bombs using a cell phone.

The first bomb was an improvised explosive device containing nails, and that the second was an incendiary bomb with gasoline, Kiunisala said.