MANILA, July 31 (Xinhua) -- Eleven people, including a soldier and five militiamen, were killed in a powerful car bomb explosion on Tuesday in the southern Philippines island of Basilan, the military said.
The military said the attack occurred at 5:50 a.m. in a village in Lamitan City on Basilan, an island province off Mindanao. A "white van" was detonated at a military checkpoint in Colonia village in Lamitan City.
Gerry Besana, the spokesman of Armed Forces of the Philippines'(AFP) Western Mindanao Command, said the explosion killed a soldier, five militiamen, four civilians and the driver of the van at the scene.
Six more soldiers and a militiaman were also injured, he added.
Besana said the troops conducted the inspection, acting upon "a report of the presence of a white van suspected to be bearing an Improvised Explosive Device."
"While troops were conducting an ocular inspection, the van suddenly exploded," said Besana.
AFP chief-of-staff Carlito Galvez said in a statement the troops "foiled an attempt to bring in a vehicle loaded with improvised explosive devices to downtown Lamitan City."
According to Galvez, whether the case was a suicide bombing were still unknown.
"There are many possibilities but to say it's a suicide bombing, that it's a lone wolf, I think that's too speculative for us to say," said AFP Spokesperson EdgardArevalo, while appealing to media not to highlight this "because it will definitely cause panic to the people."
The Philippine Presidential spokesman Harry Roque condemned the "indiscriminate attack."
"We condemn in the strongest possible terms the latest terrorist attack in Basilan perpetrated in violation of our laws," Roque said in a statement.
He added that "authorities are now investigating the incident even as we vow to bring the perpetrators of this brazen attack to justice."
The military blamed the attack on the Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG), a small, violent, and faction-ridden jihadist group that operates in the western fringes of the southern Philippine island off Mindanao and on the Sulu islands extending from Mindanao.
Arevalo said on Tuesday Abu Sayyaf Basilan commander Furuji Indama had a hand in the blast.
The ASG is notorious for carrying out bombings in the Philippine south. The group has pledged allegiance to the Islamic State and has carried out kidnappings for ransom of both foreigners and Filipinos.
Authorities said the group, which was set up in the 1990s, is thought to be holding a number of hostages which they keep in the jungles of Basilan and Sulu, their stronghold.
The Abu Sayyaf helped the Maute militants in attacking Marawi City in May last year, triggering a five-month fierce battle that left more than 1,200 dead.
