ILIGAN CITY –– A soldier was killed after an improvised bomb went off during a military operation against local members of the Islamic State (IS) in Lanao del Sur on Monday, July 6.
Col. Jose Maria Cuerpo II, commander of the Army’s 103rd Infantry Brigade, said troops from the 55th Infantry Battalion were sent to the boundary of Madalum and Bacolod Kalawi towns to check on the reported presence of armed men, believed to be IS terrorists.
They clashed with the armed men in Barangay Tamparong of Madalum.
After a fierce gunfight, the soldiers overran an encampment of the terrorists, said Lt. Col. Franco Raphael Alano, Army battalion commander.
However, as the terrorists withdrew, they set off an improvised bomb, killing the soldier.
Alano said that in the previous weeks, his men also clashed with IS fighters in the same area.