Two civilians injured by roadside bomb in southern Philippines

Nov 21, 2010, 4:49 GMT

Manila - Two civilians were injured Sunday by a roadside bomb that was believed to be meant for a member of a political clan accused of the massacre of 57 people last year in the southern Philippines, police said.

The bomb exploded along a road in Shariff Aguak town in Maguindanao province, 960 kilometres south of Manila, as the convoy of Mayor Akmad Ampatuan passed by.

Senior Superintendent Marcelo Pintac, the provincial police commander, said initial investigation showed the explosive was attached to an old motorcycle parked at the roadside.

He said Akmad Ampatuan and his entourage were not hurt in the blast that injured two civilians near the motorcycle.

Pintac said authorities suspect that Akmad Ampatuan was the target of the bombing.

'It would be intended for him, but we are still investigating,' he said.

Akmad Ampatuan, mayor of nearby Datu Salibo town, is a relative of former Datu Unsay town mayor Andal Ampatuan Junior, the key suspect in the November 23, 2009 killing of 57 people in Ampatuan town in Maguindanao.

Thirty-two of the victims were journalists and media staff, while the rest were members of a rival political family that planned to challenge the decade-old stranglehold of the Ampatuans in the province.

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