The explosion on Wednesday evening shattered an open-air market in the southern city of Zamboanga, killing three people, including an American Green Beret and injuring another US soldier and two dozen Filipinos.

The jittery city, about 850 kilometers south of Manila, was left even edgier by a small explosion yesterday evening near a Protestant church. No one was injured and the only damage was a scorch mark on the concrete sidewalk.

General Hermogenes Ebdane, the national police chief, blamed the attack on the Abu Sayyaf, a group that is known for kidnappings and beheadings throughout the predominantly Muslim southern Philippines and has been linked to the al-Qaida terror network.

The rider of a motorcycle in which the nail-laden bomb was stashed was identified as an Abu Sayyaf member from a sketch based on witness accounts, Ebdane said. There were conflicting reports whether the man was among the dead.

Military Chief of Staff Benjamin Defensor vowed to go after the Abu Sayyaf, which both US and Philippine officials said three months ago had been virtually wiped out during an American-backed military offensive involving thousands of crack Philippine troops.

"Indications at this early point to the Abu Sayyaf as the hand that tossed the beastly bomb," Defensor said. "We will cut off that hand...even the head, immediately. They've shown they have no care at all for civilians. There will be no rest or refuge from them."

The Abu Sayyaf warned last week it would mount attacks on civilian, military and US targets in the Philippines to retaliate for the ongoing government offensive against Muslim rebels in the southern Philippines.

The body of the slain American Green Beret was flown yesterday to Okinawa, Japan, along with the injured US soldier.

Security already had been tightened in Zamboanga in advance of an October 12 Christian festival in the middle of the sprawling archipelago's southern Muslim heartland.

(eastday.com October 4, 2002)