Police investigating foiled bomb attack in Mindanao market

MANILA (AP) - Philippine security officials have foiled a possible bomb attack with the discovery of an improvised device made of three mortar shells near a market stall in a southern city Wednesday, authorities said.

Civilians tipped off police after finding a bag containing three 60 mm mortar rounds left under a tree next to a used clothes shop, said Superintendent Teng Tocao, acting police chief of Sultan Kudarat province.

Police and soldiers retrieved and disarmed the explosives around 7 a.m., before crowds could gather at the Tacurong city square for market day, he said in a telephone interview.

Tocao said authorities have not determined the motive for the bomb. Stalls in the area have been targeted by extortion gangs in the past, he said.

"We are still looking into this," Tocao said. "Intelligence agents were ordered to exert all efforts to find out who planted this bomb."

He said the bomb was discovered amid a slew of recent cell phone text messages circulating rumors about bomb threats. Police and the military have been on heightened alert in Tacurong, 960 kilometers (596 miles) south of Manila, he said.

Earlier this month, twin bomb blasts near a department store in Kidapawan city _ 60 kilometers (37 miles) northeast of Tacurong _ killed two children and wounded more than two dozen others.

Authorities suspected extortion gangs or terrorism. Police said they questioned a man who was seen close to the site of the first explosion, but he was released for lack of evidence.

Key operatives of Southeast Asia's Jemaah Islamiyah terror network are believed hiding in the south, including Dulmatin and Umar Patek, who have long been hunted by U.S., Philippine and Indonesian authorities for allegedly helping mastermind the 2002 Bali nightclub bombings that killed 202 people.