Seven soldiers hurt as bomb hits truck

Wounded soldiers are transported to hospital.

DPA/Manila

Seven soldiers were injured in one of three bomb attacks that rocked the southern Philippines yesterday, the military and police said.

The soldiers were travelling on a military truck when a roadside bomb exploded in Shariff Aguak town in Maguindanao province, 930km south of Manila, said army spokesman Colonel Dickson Hermoso.

Hours earlier, a bomb exploded in front of a building housing a radio station and a pawnshop in Midsayap, in nearby North Cotabato province, said town police chief Reynante Delos Reyes. No one was hurt.

A homemade bomb also exploded at a bridge in Datu Piang town in Maguindanao province, but no one was injured, said police provincial director Rogelio Jocson.

Jocson said soldiers have been dispatched to guard the bridge, which was damaged but could still be used by vehicles.

The attacks occurred two days after a homemade bomb exploded along a busy street in nearby Cotabato City, killing nine people and injuring 28 others.

Investigators are looking into the possibility that a local city official was the target of the attack, but they have not ruled out terrorism or opposition to ongoing peace talks with Muslim separatist rebels as a motive for the bombing.