DAVAO CITY—Communist rebels were behind Saturday’s grenade attack that wounded at least 41 people, mostly children, who were watching a circus show in a remote mountain village here, military officials said.

It was the fifth grenade-throwing incident since 2010 in villages of Paquibato District here and in Panabo City in Davao del Norte, according to Major Jacob Obligado, civil-military officer of the Army’s 10th Infantry Division. Scores of civilians and government troops were wounded in the attacks.

“In all incidents, it seems that the target are the government troops,” Obligado said.

The New People’s Army (NPA), armed wing of the Communist Party of the Philippines, has yet to release a statement on the grenade attack in Barangay Fatima, a known rebel stronghold.

An earlier police report said 37 people were wounded. Around 400 people, mostly children, came to see the circus in Barangay Fatima.

Senior Superintendent Ronald Dela Rosa, city police director, said the grenade was meant for an Army mobile detachment in Barangay Fatima in Paquibato. The grenade hit a “garden net barrier” and landed on the circus spectators, he said. Dennis Jay Santos, Inquirer Mindanao