Worldandnation: Philippine blast kills U.S. soldier

MANILA, Philippines -- A nail-packed bomb killed an American Green Beret and two Filipinos on Wednesday outside a restaurant near a base in the troubled southern Philippines, where the U.S. military helped in the fight against al-Qaida-linked rebels this year.

The blast, from a bomb hidden on a motorcycle, wounded 25 people outside the restaurant, which is frequented by U.S. and Filipino soldiers, in the city of Zamboanga, officials said. Television footage showed a pool of blood and unconscious victims -- some with their shirts bloodied -- being loaded into ambulances.

No one claimed responsibility for the blast. Suspicion fell on Muslim extremists like the al-Qaida-linked Abu Sayyaf group and communist rebels who had threatened earlier in the day to attack police and military installations.

Some 1,200 U.S. troops were deployed this year in the Philippines to train the country's military to battle Abu Sayyaf in the southern islands. After the training exercise ended in July, the troops left, except for about 270 U.S. soldiers who remained, most in Zamboanga, for a humanitarian mission on nearby Basilan Island, once the center of Abu Sayyaf operations.

The 9 p.m. blast in Zamboanga ripped the roof off a small wooden house and damaged six shops across the street from the Camp Enrile army base, where some U.S. troops have been staying.

One of the Filipinos killed was the driver of the motorcycle, who "is suspected to have been the one who brought the bomb," said Defense Secretary Angelo Reyes.

Army Col. Alexander Yapching, head of Task Force Zamboanga that is in charge of securing the city from terrorist attacks, said a U.S. Army master sergeant died en route to a hospital and another American was injured, along with five Filipino troops.

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