<p class="title">A crude bomb, blamed by security forces on a small pro-Islamic State militant group, killed two people and wounded dozens on Monday in the southern Philippines, an army commander said.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Islamist militants operate in the south of the largely Christian Asian country and some are known to have links with groups abroad, including al Qaeda and Islamic State.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Major General Cirilito Sobejana, an army division commander, told Reuters the bomb bore a "Daesh-inspired signature", referring to Islamic State by another name.</p>.<p class="bodytext">The bomb went off at the entrance to a shopping mall in the city of Cotabato in the early afternoon. As well as the two people killed, 28 were wounded, he said.</p>.<p class="bodytext">A second bomb was recovered in the same area, he said.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Sobejana said he suspected the blast was retaliation for the killing by government troops of seven members of a small militant group that has pledged allegiance to Islamic State. </p>
<p class="title">A crude bomb, blamed by security forces on a small pro-Islamic State militant group, killed two people and wounded dozens on Monday in the southern Philippines, an army commander said.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Islamist militants operate in the south of the largely Christian Asian country and some are known to have links with groups abroad, including al Qaeda and Islamic State.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Major General Cirilito Sobejana, an army division commander, told Reuters the bomb bore a "Daesh-inspired signature", referring to Islamic State by another name.</p>.<p class="bodytext">The bomb went off at the entrance to a shopping mall in the city of Cotabato in the early afternoon. As well as the two people killed, 28 were wounded, he said.</p>.<p class="bodytext">A second bomb was recovered in the same area, he said.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Sobejana said he suspected the blast was retaliation for the killing by government troops of seven members of a small militant group that has pledged allegiance to Islamic State. </p>