Soldier wounded in bomb blast at Maguindanao highway

DAVAO CITY, Philippines (Xinhua) - One soldier was wounded when an improvised bomb exploded in the southern Philippines this morning, officials said.

The blast happened as soldiers and policemen were combing portions of a major road linking Davao and Cotabato provinces in Datu Paglas town, Maguindanao around 6 a.m., village chief Armstrong Magibis told local radio.

He said an army corporal was wounded by shrapnel after a makeshift bomb went off, as troops from the army's 6th Infantry Division responded following reports of a bomb found in the area.

Another bomb, fashioned from a mortar shell, was also found near the first explosion site an hour later and safely detonated by police bomb experts.

Authorities were conducting investigation as to who planted the explosives and the possible motive.