WFP aid operation disrupted by bombings in S Philippines

MANILA, July 9 (Xinhua) -- The United Nations World Food Program (WFP) has decided to suspend its food aid operation in the war-affected southern Philippines after a series of bombing attacks there that killed 12 civilians and injured about 100 others over the past days.

Alghassim Wurie, WFP deputy country director to the Philippines, said the decision to halt food distribution for a week – starting from Wednesday -- in Mindanao was made out of concern for the safety of its workers following the spate of bombing attacks since Sunday.

On Tuesday morning, two separate bombings rocked the restive southern and killed six civilians, pushing the death toll to 12 in bombings there in only three days.

Around 7:50 a.m. local time (2350 GMT Monday), an improvised bomb -- attached to a motorcycle -- went off in front of a store, about 100 meters from a Mt. Carmel church in Jolo, Sulu province, killing six civilians and wounded about 40 others, including three policemen responding to the information from civilians who noticed protruding electrical wires on the parked motorcycle.

Three hours later, another bomb, rigged in a 1987 model Mitsubishi Lancer car, exploded in the southern Iligan City, injuring 22 people, including three government soldiers.

The twin blasts occurred two days after another one that claimed six lives and wounded about 55 others in the southern city of Cotabato.

No group has claimed the responsibility for the three deadly blasts, but the military blamed the Sulu explosion on the Abu Sayyaf group and the others on rogue members of the separatist Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF).