Explosives, ISIS flag seized from house of suspected terrorist

COTABATO CITY – Police and military on Tuesday recovered assault rifles and explosives in a raid on the house of a suspected terrorist in Datu Odin Sinsuat town in Maguindanao.

Capt. Arvin Encinas, civil-military operations chief of the Army’s 6th Infantry Division, on Wednesday said the joint anti-terror operation of elements from the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group and the 6th infantry division in a safehouse in Dimapatoy village resulted in the seizure of arms cache and arrest of a certain Kamarudin Butocan Raguiab.

Encinas said the operatives were responding to an intelligence report of the presence of suspicious-looking armed men, who were not in the vicinity during the early morning raid.

Recovered from Raguiab’s house were a sniper rifle, a Pal-jet automatic rifle, a rocket-propelled grenade rifle, two M16 and one M203 rifles, a M653 telescopic rifle, an AK47, a carbine, two shotguns, one caliber .45 pistol, four improvised explosive devices (IEDs), and a rifle grenade.

Also recovered was an Islamic State banner.

“The successful operation against terror and other security threats was due to the President’s declaration of Martial Law,” said 603rd Army Brigade commander Col. Jesus Sarsagat.