Flights were diverted from busy Davao City International Airport in the rebellion-torn south yesterday after a powerful explosion ripped through the airport's arrival area, killing 19 people including one American and injuring another hundred, mostly people waiting to receive friends and relatives.
Three Americans were among the wounded. They were identified as Barbara Stevens, 33, her nine-month-old son Nathan and her daughter Sarah. They were brought to Davao Doctors Hospital, hospital staff said.
Another American, identified by Davao Medical Centre as William Hyde, died of his injuries on the operating table, said Dr. Manuel Tan. The U.S. embassy confirmed the death of an American but refused to disclose other details.
Stevens said in a telephone interview from the hospital that her family, Southern Baptist missionaries who have been living in the Philippines for five years, had just arrived from Manila when the bomb went off. She said Hyde was waiting to pick them up.
"I just heard it explode to my side," she said. "I was carrying my infant son so I grabbed my daughter and picked her up and ran away. I was afraid there could be more bombs."
"I am sad to say that one of the four Americans injured in the explosion has died in hospital," U.S. embassy spokesman Ronald Post said.
But "there were no U.S. military personnel" on the injured or death list, Manila-based U.S. military adviser Captain Dennis Williams said.
The authorities shut down Davao airport as a precaution, while other airports in Mindanao stepped up security. Lt. Gen. Narciso Abaya, commander of the military forces in the south, said an "improvised device" exploded in front of the arrival section at around 5.23pm.
The explosive pulverised a shed outside the airport terminal amid the backdrop of increased separatist guerrilla activity in the region ahead of a planned deployment of U.S. anti-terror troops.
It was the deadliest terrorist attack in recent years in the south, where Muslim groups are seeking an independent state and a small number of U.S. troops are providing counter-terrorism training to Filipino troops.
Philippine National Police Director Gen. Hermogenes Ebdane placed the official number of fatalities at 19 and 60 injured. An on-site television report by ABS-CBN also placed the number of deaths at 19 and those hurt at 122. Three Americans were among the injured, reports said.
"The number of deaths may rise as some of the injured are in serious condition," Ebdane said, and noted that all flights to the airport were cancelled, while originally scheduled arrivals were diverted to the General Santos City airport, about a hundred kilometres away to the south.
Relatively peaceful Davao has 1.2 million people and is the largest city in the south. "I heard a tremendous explosion, then I saw people on the ground," said Bobby Cabanban, who was parking his taxi about five metres away.
"It's a very powerful bomb. The waiting shed literally exploded," Davao Vice Mayor Luis Bongoyan said of the late afternoon airport blast.
"We have suspects and we are after them," Mindanao police chief Edgardo Aglipay said without elaborating. Aglipay told GMA television the bombers had used the chemical trinitrotoluene (TNT) and had concealed it in a rucksack that they left in the shed.
Television footage showed a long line of hospital beds full of bloodied patients being tended to by medical staff.
An hour after the blast, ambulances and other emergency vehicles were still dealing with casualties from the street outside the airport, cordoned off by yellow police tape and dozens of armed soldiers.
Flag-carrier Philippine Airlines suspended flights to Davao until further notice. The last of three flights to Davao for the day was recalled to Manila about 35 minutes before touchdown, an airline statement said.
President Gloria Arroyo sent Defence Secretary Angelo Reyes and Interior Secretary Jose Lina to Davao to oversee the government response to the bombing, the second at an airport in Mindanao in less than two weeks.
Separatist Moro Islamic Liberation Front militants condemned the Davao bombing and denied responsibility.
"We are expressing our willingness to coordinate in any investigation for the purpose of determining the real culprits in this bombing," MILF spokesman Eid Kabalu said in a radio interview. He said the 12,500-member group only attacked "military targets".
The military launched a major offensive against the MILF in Mindanao last month, killing nearly 200 guerrillas and displacing 214,000 civilians.
Reports of a second explosion at a bus station in Davao City immediately after the airport blast turned out to be false but a grenade explosion that occurred in Tagum City, about 54 km from Davao City, injured three street vendors. It is not known if the two incidents are related.
Gulf News 2003
