Bomb recovered in Cotabato City, another explodes in Maguindanao town

From the Philippine News Agency (Mar 28): Bomb recovered in Cotabato City, another explodes in Maguindanao town

Police detonated Monday night an improvised explosive device (IED) under a major bridge here hours after another powerful IED exploded in Maguindanao town, authorities said Tuesday.

Senior Insp. Rustum Pastolero, police station 3 chief, said the IED, composed of black power with cut nails as shrapnel and a mobile phone as triggering device, was found at about 8 p.m., two hours after a similar bomb went off in Talayan, Maguindanao.

”It was planted under the bridge, near the police and Army outpost at the approach of Tamontaka Bridge,” Pastolero said.

Upon seeing the device, bomb experts immediately cordoned off the area and detonated the IED that experts described as "powerful and could cause the collapse of the bridge," the lone link of Cotabato City to Maguindanao and Cotabato airport.

”Obviously, the IED was intended for policemen and soldiers,” Pastolero said when asked why it was placed under the bridge’s approach.

Two hours earlier, an IED exploded at the gate of the town hall in Talayan, Maguindanao. Nobody was hurt but it caused minor damages to the gate.

Colonel Roberto Sarmiento, commander of the 19th Infantry Battalion, said unidentified men planted the IED at the gate apparently to case injuries, even death, to local officials coming out of the government facility.

”Luckily, it was set off at a time when nobody was near the gate,” he told reporters. The IED went off at 6 p.m.

”It was the handiwork of groups or individuals who are against the government,” Sarmiento said when asked who could be behind the attempt.

It was not clear if the Talayan bombing was connected to the attempt to set off the IED at a bridge in Cotabato City.

Both IEDs had black powder, cut nails as shrapnel and mobile phones as triggering devices.

An Army intelligence officer who requested anonymity said the twin bombings could be a “baptism of fire” for new recruits of the outlawed Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF) to avenge the death of 21 bandits in last week’s military air and ground assaults in Datu Salibo, Maguindanao.

Following the bombing attempt in Cotabato City, Pastolero urged residents to remain calm but alert to help the government prevent similar incident in the future.

http://www.pna.gov.ph/index.php?idn=2&sid=&nid=2&rid=975510