December 17, 2004, New York Times, References to 'terror' avoided by Manila : Philippines holds 5 in fatal bombing, by Carlos H. Conde,

December 17, 2004, New York Times, References to 'terror' avoided by Manila : Philippines holds 5 in fatal bombing, by Carlos H. Conde, 

MANILA: — Five suspects, one of them alleged to be a member of the terrorist group Abu Sayyaf, have been arrested in connection with the bombing in the southern Philippines on Sunday that killed 14 people, officials said on Thursday.

Despite the arrests, the authorities refused to declare the bombing of the public market in General Santos — a city about 1,000 kilometers, or 620 miles, south of Manila — as the work of Islamic extremists who are known to operate in that part of the country. They said instead that business rivalry may have caused the bombing.

But a high-ranking intelligence official who asked not to be identified said there was "no doubt" the bombing was a terror attack no different from those carried out by extremists with links to Jemaah Islamiyah, the Southeast Asian terror network with links to Al Qaeda.

The police and military arrested the five suspects — three men and two women — during a raid in General Santos on Wednesday. They also recovered a 60-millimeter round of mortar, a grenade, blasting caps and a white powdery substance believed to be an explosives component.

Colonel Alfredo Cayton, a military commander, said the suspects may have been hired by feuding merchants. "They're under tactical interrogation to determine the motive behind the bomb attack," Cayton was quoted by Reuters as saying. "Our troops are still conducting follow-up operations because there could be more people involved."

But the intelligence official said the General Santos attack was "definitely terrorism."

"It takes some time and some amount of planning to carry out an attack like that," he said.

He pointed out that General Santos, a predominantly Christian city, had been the target of terrorist attacks in the past, including a bombing in a shopping center in April 2002. Members of Abu Sayyaf and Jemaah Islamiyah were known to operate in that city. It had also been the home of Jemaah Islamiyah operatives led by Fathur Rohman al-Ghozi, an Indonesian terrorist said to be responsible for other attacks in the Philippines.

Authorities in General Santos have been insisting that the attack last Sunday, which also injured nearly 70 people, was not related to terrorism. The intelligence officer said, however, that the official denial of the terrorism angle was meant to cushion the possible economic impact of the attack, in the same way that the government had initially denied the Abu Sayyaf's hand in the Feb. 27 ferry bombing off Manila Bay that killed more than a hundred passengers.

"You will be surprised at the number of attacks in this country that have not been attributed to terrorism due to political and economic considerations," the intelligence official said. He added that authorities would make more arrests in the next few days related to the recent General Santos attack.

This week, Australian investigators went to General Santos to help in the investigation, specifically to determine the type of explosives used and whether this was similar to the ones used in the attacks in Bali in 2002 and the bombing of the Australian Embassy in Jakarta in September.

Western countries, led by the United States, have been helping Manila fight terrorism. The United States began sending troops here shortly after the Sept. 11 attacks, to provide training to help fight Abu Sayyaf members who have been terrorizing the southern Philippines since the '90s.