A police officer carries the improvised explosive device, seen in close-up in right photo, found in Bulakan, Bulacan Wednesday. The bomb was similar to those in the US embassy bomb scare and the September 2 Davao City attack. (contributed photos)
(UPDATE - 11:03 a.m.) Another improvised explosive device similar to the ones found near the US embassy and used in the September 2 Davao City bombing was found in Bulakan, Bulacan.
The town is where two of the suspects arrested over the embassy bomb scare -- the imam Rayson Sakdal Kilala, alias “Rashid,” and X-ray technician Mohammad Jumao-as -- come from.
The bomb was found Wednesday in Barangay Sta. Ana, where Jumao-as lived, and safely defused by the Bulacan police’s explosives and ordnance division, local officials who participated in the operation but asked they not be named for lack of authority to discuss the matter told InterAksyon.
Asked about the circumstances surrounding the recovery of the bomb, the sources said “this would be the subject of explanation” at a press briefing Philippine National Police chief Ronald dela Rosa gave at Camp Crame on Thursday.
In the televised briefing, Dela Rosa said unlike the US embassy and Davao bombs, which were made from mortar rounds, the one found in Bulakan was more powerful, crafted from an 105-mm howitzer shell that could have a "casualty radius" of 80 meters, enough to kill 300 people in a crowd.
He said the shells were most likely unexploded military ordnance recovered during battle or obtained from "pilfering" of government stocks.
Dela Rosa said the location of the bomb, which was found "ready to explode," was disclosed by Jumao-as.
At the same briefing, Dela Rosa also said another "person of interest," the fourth to be associated with the embassy incident, had been found in Zambales and was being questioned. This, he said, left one more of the five-man cell he said was behind the incident still at large.
Following the arrest of Kilala and a third suspect, Jiaher Guinar, Dela Rosa said the original plan was to detonate the bomb at the Luneta Park but, when this failed, the imam was supposedly bothered by his conscience and convinced his companions to dump it in a garbage bin about a hundred meters from the US embassy where it was found by a street sweeper who immediately reported to police.
He said the botched bombing last Monday was supposed to divert attention and ease pressure on the Maute Group, which was being pounded by a military offensive in Butig, Lanao del Sur last week.
The bomb, which the PNP chief said had been transported by land from Mindanao, was safely detonated by the Manila Police District’s bomb squad.
While presenting Jumao-as to media Wednesday, National Capital Region Police Office director Chief Superintendent Oscar Albayalde said the suspect was the third man seen with Kilala and Guinar in closed circuit television footage at the Luneta and US embassy area Monday last week.
Kilala and Jumao-as are described as converts to Islam while Guinar is a Maranao from Butig.
Authorities said all three are members of the Ansar Al-Khalifa in the Philippines, a group that has pledged allegiance to the Islamic State and reportedly has ties to the Abu Sayyaf, Maute Group and Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters.
http://interaksyon.com/article/135062/another-ied-similar-to-us-embassy-davao-bombs-found-in-bulacan
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