Nineteen killed in Filipino airport bomb blast

A POWERFUL bomb hidden in a backpack exploded yesterday at an airport in the southern Philippines, killing at least 19 people and wounding more than 100, including three Americans, authorities said. The government called it a “brazen act of terrorism.”

With many of the injured in serious condition, officials feared the death toll could rise. No one claimed responsibility for the blast at Davao airport on Mindanao island. But the military has blamed Moro Islamic Liberation Front rebels for a string of attacks, including a car-bombing at nearby Cotabato airport last month that killed one woman.

The dead included a boy, a girl, nine men and seven women, officials said.