MANILA, Philippines – (UPDATE) A hand grenade exploded in Kabacan, North Cotabato Wednesday afternoon, the second such attack in two days, the town police chief said.

In a phone interview, Chief Inspector Franklin Anito said the grenade exploded inside the compound of the Iglesia ni Cristo (INC, Church of Christ) church on Matalam Street at 1 p.m. No one was reported hurt in the incident.

The attack followed the rifle grenade attack by an alleged extortion gang on a new lodging house Tuesday night and was the fourth attempt to bomb a church in the town. It was also the third attempt to bomb the INC church.

Anito told the Philippine Daily Inquirer (parent company of INQUIRER.net) that nobody was hurt in the 8 p.m. attack on the 8th Avenue Lodging House along Rizal Avenue, believed launched by the Red Spider Group, which the police chief said is identified in intelligence as a sub-group of the Al-Khobar Extortion Group, a gang tagged in a series of bomb attacks on bus companies that have refused extortion demands.

His statement contradicted the one he gave INQUIRER.net earlier denying reports an extortion group was behind the attack on the lodging house.

Anito said the lodging house owner earlier received an extortion letter from a certain Red Spider demanding monthly protection money. When the owner ignored the letter, he received another one warning of a grenade attack.

Chief Superintendent Fidel Cimatu Jr., regional director of police regional office 12, said the Tuesday night attack missed the lodging house and hit Navarro’s Hardware Warehouse, leaving a large hole on the roof of the warehouse.

On November 27, 2008 a “low grade” grenade was lobbed at the gate of Jehovah’s Witnesses Church in Kabacan. Nobody was hurt in the incident.

The next morning, an improvised explosive device (IED) fashioned from an 81mm mortar shell with a timer and blasting cap was found in front of the INC church and was defused by bomb experts.

On November 29, police detonated another IED in front of the same INC church.

Kabacan, considered to be the rice granary of Central Mindanao, had been subjected to bomb attacks in the past, the latest before Tuesday night's attack was last December.

Weena Bus company, the lone bus firm plying the Cotabato-Davao route, had been attacked by al-Khobar and the Red Spider extortion group in Kabacan public market, one of the buses' stations.

Col. Alexander Estomo, 602nd brigade chief, has deployed plainclothes men in Kabacan to prevent similar attacks in the future.

The military is aiding the police in covert operations to neutralize extortion gangs in the province.