Another Bomb Blasts Ambon

(NewsAsia Intl) – A bomb killed one person and injured 13 people in the Christian sector of Indonesia ‘s Ambon city and police defused another device planted near a church. The blast at Batumeja market at around 10:30 am — the third in the city in three days — sparked panic among residents and shoppers. A nurse at Bakti Rahayu hospital nine injured people were being treated, of whom three were in serious condition. A nurse at the Maluku Protestant Church Hospital said five people were admitted and one of them later died. City police chief Leonidas Braksan said officers defused a bomb planted in the grounds of Maranatha church. He said a suspected bomb at the tax office turned out to be a false alarm. The city in the eastern Maluku islands is still recovering from an outbreak of Muslim-Christian violence which began on April 25. Some 38 people were killed and hundreds of homes and other buildings were torched. Two blasts on Sunday injured five Christians in what national police chief Da’i Bachtiar described as an attempt to provoke more trouble.