More than 20,000 refugees crowd Jolo as people flee clashes between army and rebels.

Manila (AsiaNews/Agencies) – Fear of renewed terrorism is growing in the Philippines after Monday's triple attack in Manila, Davao and General Santos killed 11 people and injured another 150.

The army stepped up security measures around foreign embassies, airports, and shopping centres in Manila where a bomb blew up in a bus killing six people in the Makati district

Filipino Marines were deployed at sensitive installations in the capital such as the Pandacan oil depot, a stone's throw away from the presidential palace.

President Arroyo issued a statement vowing "to wipe out the remnants of the Abu Sayyaf", the terrorist group linked to al-Qaeda which claimed responsibility for the attacks.

Presidential spokesman Ignacio Bunye called on citizens to "brace themselves against these attacks on our freedom and security" whilst Philippine National Police Chief Edgardo Aglipay appealed to residents "to go on with your daily activities".

Fear in the meantime is gripping Filipino Muslims. Police raids and the hunt for the culprits are affecting Muslims indiscriminately.

Muslim residents in the town of Taguig, Metropolitan Manila, visited their congressman, Alan Cayetano, to ask him to protect them from indiscriminate police arrests following the bombings.

To reassure Filipino Muslims, President Arroyo was careful to state that "this is not a fight against Islam or against the separatist Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF)", which is still negotiating a peace deal with the government. "Nor is it a fight against the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF), which had signed a peace agreement in 1996", she noted.

Both groups want a Muslim homeland in the southern island of Mindanao, which in some parts has a Muslim majority.

On Jolo Island, south-west of Mindanao, clashes between the Filipino military and breakaway MILF elements who joined Abu Sayyaf continue.

Up to 22,000 people left their homes and fled the combat zone to avoid getting caught between army patrols and rebel units. 

• philippines
• terrorism
• security
• islam
• fudamentalismo
• extremism
• mindanao
• al
• qaeda
• milf
• mnlf