PNP, Army special forces on alert vs. BIFF bomb attacks

From the Philippine News Agency (Apr 24): PNP, Army special forces on alert vs. BIFF bomb attacks

Police and military authorities here have tightened its security activities to thwart another attempt to disrupt the city's peace and order.

This after two men riding tandem on motorbike conducted a bombing spree early this week in Cotabato City and nearby town of Datu Odin Sinsuat, Maguindanao.

The bombing perpetrated by suspected Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF) members left one civilian wounded.

Lt. Colonel Ranulfo Sevilla, chief of the Army's 5th Special Forces Battalion based in the city, said more checkpoints have been deployed around the city, including various tributaries used by lawless elements in committing crimes in the city.

Senior Supt. Rolen Balquin, city police director, said more police checkpoints and foot patrol operations have been established to prevent the BIFF from sowing terror in the city.

"We are doing our best, all we need is peoples understanding during checkpoint inspection and for the public to help by informing authorities if they see suspicious looking persons or armed men around town," Sevilla told reporters.

Sevilla said the motive of bombing on Sunday night here was to inflict injuries, even death, on Army Special Forces which help the police secure city residents.

"We are closely monitoring lawless elements, they are targeting our forces," he said after the suspects missed in tossing imprpovised bomb on a military vehicle conducting patrol along Sinsuat Avenue, Cotabato City.

The IED landed on a roadside after it bounced back from the windshield of the Army truck loaded with soldiers. It went off and wounded a civilian.

Minutes later, the same suspects lobbed an IED in front of a Special Forces battalion detachment along Notre Dame Avenue, Cotabato City. The made of the IED lobbed at the detachment and the one tossed at a moving military truck were the same, Sevilla said.

"This is unique, a live hand grenade was attached to an empty main charge of 60 mm mortar loaded with ammonium nitrate," Sevilla said. The grenade served as the triggering device and it was very powerful when a grenade and a 60 mm mortar simultaneously explode.

Before the foiled bombing attempt in the city, the two suspects earlier lobbed an IED in front of the police detachment of Datu Odin Sinsuat town in Maguindanao, particularly in Barangay Tamontaka. Nobody was hurt in that blast.

Capt. Joann Petinglay, 6th Infantry Division spokesperson, said the bombing could have been perpetrated by the remnants of BIFF following the losses they achieved when the Army launched all out offensives in Maguindanao last February.

http://www.pna.gov.ph/index.php?idn=2&sid=&nid=2&rid=755829