3 soldiers hurt as IED blast rocks North Cotabato town

From the Philippine News Agency (Aug 30): 3 soldiers hurt as IED blast rocks North Cotabato town
 
Three soldiers were hurt when an improvised explosive device planted near an Army detachment went off at 6 a.m. Friday, police said.

Supt. Renante Delos Reyes, Midsayap PNP chief, said the IED was fashioned from a 60 mm mortar with cellphone as trigger mechanism. The explosive went off in Barangay Nabalawag, Midsayap, North Cotabato.

Colonel Dickson Hermoso, 6th Infantry Division spokesperson, identified the wounded soldiers as Sgt. Rudolfo Ubangon, Sgt. Remond Sapun and Sgt. Errick Naranjo, all of the Delta Company of the 7th Field Artillery Battalion.

Sgt. Ubangon was in critical condition as he was close to the IED when it went off.

Delos Santos said Ubangon was about to take an early morning bath at the back of the Army detachment when the IED went off, the fifth explosion in Midsayap in August.

Three of the IEDs were set off by suspected members of the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF) at the outskirt barangays of Nes, Nabalawag ang Baliki while two were set off in the town center.

Following the August 6 IED blast that ripped through a pawnshop along Rizal Street, the local government had imposed curfew hours starting at 9 p.m. until 4 a.m.

No one has claimed responsibility in Friday’s improvised bomb attack but police are looking at the BIFF since it has the signature of the latest explosion.

http://www.pna.gov.ph/index.php?idn=2&sid=&nid=2&rid=560467