MANILA - A bid to plant car-bombs at the Philippines' main airport and a nearby shopping mall was foiled on Monday, authorities said. The motive for the bomb plot was not immediately clear but in the past such attacks in Manila and other parts of the largely Christian Philippines have been blamed on al Qaeda-linked Islamist militants from the Abu Sayyaf group.
Agents of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) found improvised explosive devices in a parking area at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport. Three men were arrested but no details were released pending investigation. One NBI official, who declined to be identified because he is not authorized to speak to reporters, said the suspects had been under surveillance for a month. "They were assembling the improvised bombs inside their vehicles at the airport parking lot," the official said, adding that up to eight bombs and a pistol were confiscated from the suspects.
