US Ambassador Harry Thomas Jr condemned the “heinous attack” and cancelled his trip to the the city on Friday, saying he did not want police resources diverted from the investigation. Washington, he said, was ready to extend any help requested by authorities.
Police said the blast was caused by an improvised explosive device.
“There was one man who died on the spot and he could be the one who detonated the explosive device,” Celso Lobregat, mayor of the city on Mindanao island, told reporters after the incident.
He later said another man had died while being treated at a hospital and 24 were wounded. They included Sakur Tan, governor of the southern island of Jolo, a hotbed of Islamist militancy in the mainly Roman Catholic state.
Officials gave no indication whether there was a link between the attack and Thomas’s visit.
The blast occurred as people were leaving the airport after the arrival of a flight from Manila, Lobregat said.
In the past, a small group of Islamist militants with links to al Qaeda and Jemaah Islamiah had been blamed for bomb attacks in shopping malls, parks and Catholic churches in the city.
Dozens of US soldiers are stationed in the city, helping train and advise Filipino troops fighting Islamist militants who were sheltering a small group of Indonesian militants.
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