Bomb blast toll rises to 5 in southern Philippines

MANILA, Mar 27 (Reuters) A lunchtime bomb blast blamed on Muslim militant group Abu Sayyaf killed five and wounded 17 on the southern Philippine island of Jolo, the military said today.

Brigadier-General Alexander Aleo, the army's island commander, said Abu Sayyaf, a small but deadly local Muslim rebel group, was behind the attack on a shop in the heart of the main market in Jolo.

''This is definitely the handiwork of the Abu Sayyaf,'' said Aleo. ''Based on our initial investigation, a cellphone was used as a triggering device to a bomb made out of ammonium nitrate.'' ''We all knew that the Abu Sayyaf got training in making bombs from Indonesian militants from Jemaah Islamiah. This could be a product of that technology transfer.'' The provincial police chief said one man had been taken in for questioning, but he declined to say whether he was a suspect or a witness to the worst bomb attack so far this year on the mainly Muslim island.

Troops in the area had gone on alert to prevent an escalation of violence, the army said.

Last month, a crude bomb ripped through a row of night clubs outside an army base on Jolo, killing a man and wounding 13 people, days before 250 US troops were due to conduct humanitarian missions on the island.

Jolo is the base of Abu Sayyaf, a militant group blamed for the worst terror attack in the Philippines -- the bombing of a ferry in February 2004 that killed more than 100 people.

The group, which has a membership of around 400 and is on Washington's blacklist of terrorist organisations, has also kidnapped and beheaded foreign and Filipino tourists and church workers.

The mainly Roman Catholic Philippines, fighting insurgencies by communist guerrillas and Islamic separatists, has cemented its close ties with the United States with nearly two dozen exercises held each year.

REUTERS SY BST1637