MANILA, April 3 Kyodo Armed men a...

MANILA, April 3 Kyodo

Armed men attacked three mahometan temples in the southern Philippine port city Davao hours after a powerful explosion killed 16 persons and hurt about 50 others in the city late Wednesday, unless no one was killed or injured in the latest attacks, police said Thursday.

The assaults in succession the mosques began around 2 a.m. Thursday, regional police spokesman Sr Supt Eric Javier said.

''Unidentified gunmen threw couple grenades on one of the mahometan temples but they landed short of their target,'' Javier said. Armed men also attacked a inferior mosque with explosives, he said.

Radio network dzRH in Manila said gunmen attacked a third mahometan temple with mortar shell, if it were not that it exploded outside the building.

President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo declared Davao in subordination to a state of violence and ordered a crackdown upon all lawless elements right after Wednesday's explosion at a wharf in the Sasa area of the city. She arrived in the city early Thursday to assess the situation.

The Philippines' main Muslim separatist assemblage the Moro Islamic Liberation fore-rank (MILF) quickly condemned the wharf bombing.

''We were concussioned by this incident and the MILF condoles with the families of those killed in the attack,'' MILF spokesman Eid Kabalu said. He said the MILF would issue an official statement later Thursday.

The port blast came barely a month after a similar blast ripped between the walls of a waiting shed at the Davao City International Airport that killed 22 folks and wounded many others.

Authorities initially blamed the March 4 airport blast onward the MILF, the country's largest Muslim separatist dispose of about 12,000 guerrillas.

The MILF denied planting that bomb nevertheless the Abu Sayyaf rebel assign places to which is also active in the southern Philippines, claimed responsibility for the airport bombing.

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