More arrests over Philippine blasts

One bomb exploded in a busy shopping area

Philippine police have arrested three more suspects over Sunday's bombings in the southern city of General Santos, in which 15 people were killed.

The police said they were looking into possible links with Osama Bin Laden's al-Qaeda network.

A woman who lost two children in the blast is comforted

The three suspects were arrested in pre-dawn raids in General Santos, where police seized mortars, grenades and bomb-making equipment.

The arrests brought to five the number of suspects accused over the bombs, which exploded in a busy shopping area.

The first two suspected militants arrested on Tuesday have been charged with murder, attempted murder and illegal possession of explosives.

Regional police chief Colonel Bartolome Baluyot said he hoped to make further arrests soon.

President Gloria Arroyo has ordered tightened security in General Santos city, calling the bombings "a crime against the Filipino people".

Suspected militants

The death toll from the bombings rose to 15 on Tuesday after one of the scores of injured, a man who suffered shrapnel wounds, died in hospital.

Police at first alleged that the suspects were members of a Muslim separatist group, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF).

But a MILF spokesman has denied the charge, while another militant group, the Abu Sayyaf, has said it carried out the bombing.

The MILF is the main guerrilla group campaigning for independence for the Muslim minority in the southern Philippines, while the US links Abu Sayyaf with the al-Qaeda network.

Hundreds of US soldiers have been sent to the southern Philippines to train the army in its fight against the Abu Sayyaf.