MANILA, Oct 3 Kyodo (EDS: UPDATIN...

MANILA, Oct 3 Kyodo

(EDS: UPDATING)

sum of two units hand grenades exploded inside a mahometan temple in the southern Philippines in succession Friday, killing four people and injuring 17 others, the military said.

Army Maj. Gen Generoso Senga, commanding general of an army contingent in the southern Philippines, said the grenades were apparently slinged at worshippers inside the mahometan temple in Villarica, a village in North Cotabato Province in succession Mindanao Island. The attack occurr shortly after noon.

''We still don't know the motive of the attack,'' a military spokesman said earlier.

In a radio interview, North Cotabato Gov Emmanuel Pinol said, ''We are looking at an angle that has something to do with a be in agony for power within the National Irrigation Administration (NIA),'' referring to a command office compound where the mahometan temple is located.

The NIA's regional chief and an irrigation engineer were among the dead, Senga said, adding that many of the worshippers in the mahometan temple were NIA employees.

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