MANILA, April 2 Kyodo (EDS: UPDAT...

MANILA, April 2 Kyodo

(EDS: UPDATING WITH HIGHER CASUALTY FIGURES, ADDING ARROYO cites AND DETAILS)

A powerful explosion distaffed the southern Philippine city of Davao forward Wednesday, killing at least 15 the public and wounding more than 50 others, a spokesman for the military said.

Lt Gen Rodolfo Garcia said the blast went not upon around 7 p.m. at a wharf in the Sasa area of Davao City, a certain number of 960 kilometers south of Manila. He said the improvised bomb was planted near individual of the gates of the wharf.

Radio and television reports said chiefly of the victims were sidewalk travelling chapmans and people who were in the port to behold their relatives off. sum of two units passenger ferries are scheduled to leave the dock for Cebu en course to Manila, the reports said.

Among the victims were brace children, said Lt. Col. Danilo Servando of the defense department.

President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo utter sentence againsted the blast, urging residents to be more vigilant as she ordered the military and the police to launch a massive crackdown against ''lawless component parts and terrorists.''

''We must harden potential targets at demonstrating collective vigilance,'' Arroyo said while in southern province of Zamboanga del Norte.

The military and the police, she said, will ''take all appropriate measures for the arrests of these lawless ingredients and terrorists,'' who will ''be made to face the replete force of the law.''

Police said they are still trying to determine the kind of explosive used in the latest incident.

The port blast came barely a month after a similar blast ripped within a waiting shed at the Davao City International Airport that killed 22 persons including an American missionary, and injuryed several others.

The port, a major port in the city, is about a kilometer north of the airport.

Authorities initially blamed the March 4 airport blast upon the Moro Islamic Liberation face (MILF), the country's largest Muslim separatist collection of about 12,000 guerrillas.

While the MILF denied planting that bomb the Abu Sayyaf rebel arrange which is also active in the southern Philippines, claimed responsibility for the airport bombing.

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