19 wounded in Mindanao explosions

COTABATO CITY, Philippines —  On the eve of President Duterte’s visit to this city, at least 19 people, including soldiers on patrol, were wounded in separate explosions in Mindanao yesterday.

In Cotabato City, a blast that ripped through a busy section of the city’s downtown area just after dusk yesterday left at least 16 persons, including Special Forces soldiers, wounded.

At least three persons were wounded in another set of roadside explosions near the bridge in
 
Libungan town in the same province.

The explosions occurred as Duterte is set to visit Cotabato City for a land distribution ceremony today.

Responding probers from the Cotabato City police and intelligence agents from the Army’s 6th Infantry Division told reporters an explosive went off inside a passenger vehicle while in transit along Sinsuat Avenue, near the broadcast center of Catholic radio station dxMS.

Army and police bomb experts are still trying to determine what kind of explosive was used in the attack.

Bomb experts disrupted two other suspected improvised explosive devices found at the blast scene, not far from Cotabato City’s Immaculate Conception Cathedral, where about a decade ago a bomb attack killed three churchgoers and injured more than 20 others.