Something new; jihad in the Philippines

Not really that new, although this kind of attack is unusual in that tourists have not been targeted in two years, and that last attack happened at the same hotel. This time the victims were celebrating a wedding and didn't know what hit them.

The method may change slightly but the message stays the same.

From MSNBC November 28

Wedding tragedy: Hotel bomb kills 3, wounds dozens in Philippines

MANILA, Philippines — Suspected Islamic militants detonated a powerful bomb that killed at least three people and wounded 27 others in a budget hotel packed with wedding guests in the southern Philippines, officials said Monday.

Investigators believe the blast and ensuing fire that gutted the two-story Atilano Pension House in downtown Zamboanga City late Sunday was a terrorist strike and that it was not linked to the wedding, city police director Edwin de Ocampo said.

Still, many of the victims were from a group of more than 20 people who occupied six of the hotel's 35 rooms for a planned ceremony Monday.

Citing witnesses, the BBC reported that the explosion destroyed the upper levels of the hotel.

"We should not show that we're panicking because that is what these troublemakers relish to see," Zamboanga Mayor Celso Lobregat told The Associated Press by telephone. "We have good leads. We will get all of them."

Good luck with that, Lobregat.

Read it all