Roadside bomb defused 3 hours after blast rocks town in Maguindanao

From GMA News (Aug 10): Roadside bomb defused 3 hours after blast rocks town in Maguindanao

Bomb experts defused what could be a powerful roadside bomb they found along the national highway in North Upi town in Maguindanao before noon Saturday.

The improvised explosive device was found three hours after the explosion of an IED fashioned from a 60mm mortar and planted in a area in Sitio Payong-Payong in Barangay Kibleg, also in North Upi.

Mayor Ramon Piang Sr. said authorities had again ordered the closure of the national highway as clearing operations are still underway.

Piang said minutes after the roadside blast took place at about 7:10 a.m., members of the Philippine Marines and the North Upi Police blocked the road to ensure safety of the commuters.

But while elements of the Explosives and Ordnance Disposal (EOD) Team of the Army were scouring the area for possible explosives, they found another IED, also fashioned from a 60mm mortar, planted just few meters from the blast site.

The IED was placed in separate packages in different areas, Piang said, adding that EOD experts defused the bomb.

Due to the blast the highway was closed for hours and was opened only shortly before 1 pm.

“No one was hurt in the blast,” he said.

Meanwhile, soldiers securing the Cotabato-Maguindanao highway conducted a pursuit operation against an armed group that allegedly orchestrated an attack in Sitio Habitat, Barangay Pagangan in Aleosan town at about 9:30 a.m.

Captain Antonio Bulao, chief of the civil military operations of the 602nd Brigade, said the attack resulted in the wounding of a member of the 40th Infantry Battalion assigned in Pagangan.

Bulao said they strengthened the highway security after they received reports these armed men were out to sow terror against commuters and vehicles plying the route.

The blast in North Upi came hours after a 40mm shoulder-fired grenade exploded in front of a house of militiaman Eddie Antolin, 49, in Kabacan, North Cotabato, wounding him; his son Ezekiel, 9; and parents-in-law Lucena and Benjamin Ferrer.

http://www.gmanetwork.com/news/story/321440/news/regions/roadside-bomb-defused-3-hours-after-blast-rocks-town-in-maguindanao