Military bomb experts on Tuesday detonated an improvised
explosive device planted by outlawed Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF)
along a major highway in the province.
While members of the military bomb disposal team were
attending to the roadside bomb, hundreds of commuters plying portions of the
Cotabato-Davao highway, particularly in Datu Unsay, Maguindanao, were stranded
for about an hour beginning at 11:00 a.m.
Citing reports from the 2nd Mechanized Infantry Battalion,
Capt. Joann Petinglay, 6th Infantry Division spokesperson, said the improvised
bomb fashioned from a mortar round with black pweder and metal sheets as
shrapnel, was found strapped on a steel road railing in Barangay Iganagampong,
Datu Unsay, Maguindanao.
Police said the IED was first found by motorists passing by
the village and quickly alerted an Army detachment about 400 meters away.
To prevent accidental explosion, bomb experts detonated the
IED using a water disruptor.
IED has been a regular armaments of the BIFF that it had
been using against military.
The BIFF has been blamed for at least 40 roadside
bombings in Maguindanao this year.
According to the military, the IED was meant for government
forces passing by the Maguindanao major thoroughfare.
Roadside bombing is very dangerous, especially if bombs are
placed on areas where civilians regularly commute.
Five government forces were killed and 30 others were hurt
in roadside bombings since the Army launched offensives against the BIFF in
Datu Salibo, Maguindanao for attacking workers of a government flood control
project.
Five civilians, including the town treasurer of Datu Salibo,
were also killed when the BIFF set off a road side bomb on the treasurer's
vehicle mistaken as Army truck in Datu Saudi Ampatuan, also in Maguindanao.
http://www.pna.gov.ph/index.php?idn=2&sid=&nid=2&rid=869174
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