Fifteen injured in Philippines mosque attack

Fifteen people including 10 police officers were wounded in an attack on a mosque on a remote Philippine island long plagued by militancy, officials said Saturday.

Successive blasts targeted a mosque on the island of Jolo -- an initial grenade attack followed by a bomb explosion that was intended to target police who rushed to the scene, local authorities said.

"It seems the (first) explosion was set up to draw responders as the target," the provincial police chief Senior Superintendent Abraham Orbita told reporters.

Three of the five civilian causalities injured in the first explosion were children and 10 police officers were wounded by the improvised explosive device that detonated less than 10 minutes later, police said.

No group has claimed responsibility for the attack.

The island is a known stronghold of Abu Sayyaf, a small group of a few hundred militants founded in the 1990s with seed money from Al Qaeda.