Philippines says arrests suspected bombers

MANILA, Sep 16 (Reuters) Philippine police arrested two men believed to be behind a bomb blast that targetted a powerful politician on the southern island of Mindanao in June, officials said today.

The assassination attempt on Datu Andal Ampatuan triggered two weeks of fighting between his paramilitary units and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), threatening a truce and peace talks with the Muslim rebels.

Suharto Tucao, police chief of Sultan Kudarat province, said the two suspects, believed to be MILF members, were found recuperating from blast wounds at a hospital in Tacurong City late on Friday.

''We served the arrest warrants against them after we have established their identities,'' Tucao told reporters, holding a copy of the warrants but without naming the two rebels.

Ampatuan, governor of Maguindanao province on Mindanao island and a close ally of President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, ost two relatives in the bomb attack. He was unhurt in the blast, the third attempt on his life in six years as governor.

His convoy was passing near a market when an improvised bomb fashioned from an 81mm mortar round exploded, killing seven people.

Last week, talks between Manila and the MILF, the largest Muslim rebel group in the south, broke down over the issue of size and wealth of a proposed ancestral homeland.

Eid Kabalu, a rebel spokesman, said the two men were being framed by local police, pressured by politicians to solve the bomb attack.

''The arrests were done illegally,'' Kabalu told reporters.

''There were no arrest warrants and they were in a hospital because of a grenade blast in Datu Sangki town.'' Tucao said the suspects were wounded when a bomb they were trying to assemble exploded accidentally.

REUTERS PB RK1405