Bomb defused at waiting shed in Maguindanao town
SHARIFF AGUAK, Maguindanao, Philippines—Government troops defused a powerful improvised explosive device planted at a waiting shed in Datu Unsay town in Maguindanao on Tuesday morning.
Col. Dickson Hermoso, speaking for the 6th Infantry Division, said soldiers of the 46th Infantry Battalion found the suspicious package left unattended at a waiting shed beside a highway in Barangay Iganagampong, Datu Unsay, Maguindanao, at about 6 a.m.
The place is often used by civilian commuters, motorists and even soldiers as resting place or temporary shelter during a downpour.
The soldiers on board a light military truck were about to take a rest after a long travel when one of them noticed the package. Upon a thorough check, they found out it contained an IED fashioned from an 81 mm mortar with a mobile phone as the trigger mechanism.
Hermoso said an Army bomb disposal team managed to defuse the explosive and prevented what could have been a bloody Tuesday morning.
The area is a known bailiwick of the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF), which the Army blamed for the series of bombings against civilians, government infrastructure and soldiers in Maguindanao.
Composed of about 1,000 armed followers, the BIFF was formed in 2008 after they broke away from the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), which has been negotiating a peace settlement for more than 10 years now.
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