Eleven people were killed and at least 93 injured Monday in Valentine's Day bombings by suspected militants that hit Manila and two southern Philippine cities, officials said. Three people were killed on the spot and about 60 injured when a powerful bomb ripped through a bus in the Makati financial district of Manila during the early evening rush hour, Metropolitan Manila police chief Avelino Razon said. The blast set two nearby buses on fire. Five people were killed when a blast hit a bus depot in the southern city of Davao on Mindanao island at dusk, Social Welfare Secretary Corazon Soliman said. Three people were killed and 33 injured when a bomb hit a shopping mall in the southern city of General Santos on Mindanao at about the same time as the Davao bombing, she said over DZBB radio.The three bombings were claimed by the Abu Sayyaf. Abu Sayyaf spokesman Abu Solaiman told DZBB radio in an interview that the three bombings were "our Valentine's gift to her (President Gloria Arroyo)". "The defenders of Islam have struck again," he said. "Our latest opperations in Manila, Davao and General Santos, planned and executed with precision by the gallant warriors of Islam, is our continuing response to the Philippine government's atrocities committed against Muslins everywhere," he said.
In a reference to an ongoing rebellion by several hundred Muslim gunmen on the southern island of Jolo he accused the military of "massacring whole families". And he warned every Filipino and foreigner alike that "we will not stop until we get justice for the countless Muslim lives and properties that you people have destroyed."