7 soldiers wounded in Maguindanao roadside blast

INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines—Seven Army soldiers onboard a military truck were wounded after a roadside bomb exploded in Shariff Saydona Mustapha town in Maguindanao Wednesday morning, the military said.

Major General Romeo Gapuz, commander of the Philippine Army’s 6th Infantry Division, said the soldiers were on their way back to camp when the improvised bomb went off in Nabundas village around 11a.m.

Gapuz said the soldiers came from the market and were on their way back to Rajah Buayan.

Muslim guerrillas belonging to the rebel faction the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Movement, claimed responsibility for the attack.

Regional military spokesman Colonel Dickson Hermoso said another bomb made from a mortar round went off before dawn in Midsayap town in North Cotabato province near Maguindanao, damaging some stores but causing no injuries.

In a report by the Office of Civil Defense-Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, the IED was fashioned from an 81mm mortar shell.

The seven soldiers aboard KM 250 who were wounded were: Staff Sergeant Vicente Bendoy; Sergeant Alex Pepugal; Corporal Jeoill Ancheta; Privates First Class Julious Villanueva, Philip John Soriano, Efren Garite; and Private Aurelio Cantomayor.

They were brought to Camp Siongco Hospital at Awang in Datu Odin Sinsuat.

On Monday, a powerful bomb rigged to a van killed eight people and wounded 31 others in Cotabato City, also near Maguindanao. With a report from Associated Press

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