Army, police hunting down suspects in Tacurong blast

From the Philippine News Agency (Feb 2): Army, police hunting down suspects in Tacurong blast

Police and military authorities here are hunting down two men believed to have planted an improvised explosive device at a parked car along a busy street here Tuesday afternoon.

"Manhunt is on going, we are following many leads," said Supt. Ranie Hachuela, chief of the Tacurong City police director.

The blast which occurred at past 2 p.m. injured three children who happened to be near a parked Toyota BB car in front of La Forteza Pharmacy and Caltex Gas Station along Jose Abad Santos Avenue.

Slightly injured were Freddie Tumindig, 42, Nicole Fobar, 19 and a 9-year-old boy.

The IED was fashioned from explosive charges with nails and fragments of metal used as shrapnel, according to Army bomb experts from Task Force Talakudong, a joint police and military unit task to secure the city and its environs.

Capt. Joann Petinglay, speaking for the 6th Infantry Division, said the Army's 602nd Infantry Brigade investigators are helping the local police.

Following the incident, police and Army checkpoints were put up in all entry and exit points of the city serving as crossroads to Maguindanao, Sultan Kudarat and South Cotabato.

The IED was cellphone-detonated similar to an IED found at a bus terminal in Shariff Aguak on Thursday last week.

No one has claimed responsibility in Tacurong blast, the second this year.

On January 11, an alert fruit vendor prevented an IED blast when she reported her discovery to the local police who quickly deactivated the bomb.

Today's bomb and that of the January 11 incident was similar, investigators, said and could have been carried out by extortion groups.

Last Dec. 27, 2015, three persons were hurt when an IED fashioned from 60 mm mortar exploded at about 10 pm near the city's public market.

http://www.pna.gov.ph/index.php?idn=2&sid=&nid=2&rid=853276