Govt troops foil bombing try in Maguindanao

CAMP SIONGCO, MAGUINDANAO – Army and police bomb experts deactivated late Saturday a powerful roadside improvised bomb that the villagers found along the highway in Datu Odin Sinsuat, Maguindanao.

Chief Supt. Graciano Mijares, police director for the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, said the improvised bomb fashioned from 81-mm mortars with a mobile phone as triggering device was found in Barangay Tanuel at past 7 p.m.

Civilians became suspicious it was an improvised bomb so they alerted soldiers and police manning checkpoints nearby.

The site where the bomb was found was only two kilometers away from the Army’s 6th Infantry Division headquarters.

No one has claimed responsibility for planting the device but police and military authorities believed the Islamic State (IS)-linked Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters were behind the plot.

It was the eighth bomb attempt this month in Maguindanao highways.

Two bombs that went off last week hurt a soldier.

Maj. Gen. Cirilito Sobejana, the commander of the 6th Infantry Division, reiterated his appeal for the public to immediately alert authorities of any suspicious items left unattended in their midst, especially in Maguindanao.