Blast in Philippine south wounds 4, damages bridge

MANILA (Reuters) - A powerful blast ripped through a bus terminal in the southern Philippines Monday wounding four people, an army spokesman said, blaming the attack on a rogue faction of Muslim guerrillas.

The explosion, believed to have been caused by a crude bomb, also shattered glass panels of nearby commercial establishments in North Cotabato province, Major Randolph Cabangbang, an army spokesman, told reporters.

"Nobody specializes in such terrorist operations other than the lawless Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) group," Cabangbang said, adding it was the second bombing attack on Monday on the southern island of Mindanao.

Two crude bombs exploded at dawn near Iligan City, damaging a 100-meter (328-foot) bridge linking the Catholic-dominated urban center to Muslim towns on Lanao del Norte province.

Cabangbang said government engineers were still checking the structural damage to the bridge and re-routed traffic to avoid an accident.

Security forces have been battling three rogue MILF field commanders in the south since August 2008 after talks on carving out an ancestral homeland for Muslims in the south of the mainly Catholic state collapsed.

The conflict has killed 300 people since then and displaced tens of thousands from their homes and farms.

(Reporting by Manny Mogato; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan and Bill Tarrant)