Police, Islamic State give conflicting claims in blast

MANILA — A bomb explosion that killed two people in a Muslim community in Manila was sparked by a personal feud, Philippine police officials said Sunday. But the Islamic State group said its fighters were responsible.

Police said a package being delivered by a man exploded late Saturday in Manila’s Quiapo district, killing him and the recipient at a Shiite center. Police said four others were wounded.

Another explosive, either a homemade bomb or a grenade, detonated two hours later near the scene of the first blast and wounded two officers deployed to help secure the area and investigate the bombing, according to authorities.

Manila police Chief Oscar Albayalde said the bombing apparently was set off by a personal feud, adding the package that contained the explosive was intended for a specific person who may have been the target of the attack.

Albayalde called for public vigilance following the assault, the second in more than a week in Quiapo, a popular transportation, shopping and religious hub.

The Islamic State group, through its Aamaq media arm, claimed responsibility for the explosion, saying in a statement that “five Shiites have been killed and six others injured by detonating an explosive device by the Islamic State fighters in central Manila.”

The death toll differed from details released by the police and other officials in Manila.

There have been fears of the Sunni-Shiite violence spreading to the largely Roman Catholic Philippines, home to minority Muslims who are mostly Sunnis in the country’s south. A Shiite center was bombed in the south in 2015 and two local Shiites were killed in an attack near Manila that same year.

A pipe bomb also exploded in Quiapo on April 28 while President Rodrigo Duterte’s administration was hosting an annual ministerial meeting of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations in a nearby convention center.

The bombings come amid ongoing military offensives against the Abu Sayyaf and other groups, which have pledged allegiance to Islamic State.

Noel Celis / AFP / Getty Images Members of a bomb squad examine a suspicious package in the Manila district of Quiapo, where a bomb explosion killed two people and injured four others.