COTABATO CITY – Military bomb experts on Tuesday detonated a powerful improvised explosive device planted by Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF) rebels along a major highway in Datu Unsay, Maguindanao.
While members of the military bomb disposal team were attending to the road side bomb, hundreds of commuters plying portions of the Cotabato-Davao highway, particularly in Datu Unsay, were stranded for about an hour beginning at 7 a.m.
Citing reports from the 2nd Mechanized Infantry Battalion, Capt. Joann Petinglay, 6th Infantry Division spokesperson, said the improvised bomb fashioned from a mortar round with black powder and metal sheets as shrapnel, was found strapped on a steel road railing in Barangay Iganagampong, Datu Unsay.
Police said the IED was first found by motorists passing by the village and quickly alerted an Army detachment about 400 meters away.
Bomb experts detonated the IED using water disruptor.
IED has been a regular armament of the BIFF that it had been using against military. The BIFF has been blamed for at least 40 roadside bombings in Maguindanao this year.
Obviously, according to the military, the IED was meant for government forces passing by the Maguindanao major thoroughfare.
Abu Misri Mama, BIFF spokesperson, denied his group was behind the attempt. Instead, he pointed an accusing finger at the Army.
“It’s military tactic, then put the blame on us,” Mama said.
Five government forces were killed and 30 others were hurt in roadside bombings when the Army launched offensives against the BIFF in Datu Salibo, Maguindanao for attacking workers of a government flood control project.
Five civilians, including the town treasurer of Datu Salibo, were also killed when the BIFF set off a roadside bomb on the treasurer’s vehicle mistaken as Army truck in Datu Saudi Ampatuan, also in Maguindanao.