Suspected Filipino rebels set off bomb, 12 wounded

MANILA: A homemade bomb that was likely set off by rebels in the southern Philippines on Saturday wounded 12 people, including six soldiers and two television journalists, the military said.

The blast happened near an area where government troops have been battling insurgents who broke away from a larger rebel group after it signed a peace deal with the government.

The victims, including two TV journalists, were hit by shrapnel in Maguindanao province´s Datu Saudi Ampatuan township, but their injuries were not life-threatening, said regional military spokesman Col. Dickson Hermoso.

A reporter and a cameraman for the local TV5 network were reporting near the site of an earlier explosion, which flattened the tires of a military armored vehicle. They were following soldiers in two other armored vehicles when a second bomb exploded about 45 minutes later, wounding the journalists, six soldiers, and four civilians.

The network said in a statement that the journalists will be flown back to the capital, Manila.

The explosions came three days after troops captured a rebel stronghold with bomb-making and training facilities. The bombs are typically fashioned from unexploded mortars and rocket-propelled grenades triggered remotely by cellphones.