COTABATO CITY – A suspected bomber was killed after an improvised explosive he was transporting accidentally detonated early Tuesday evening in Pikit town in the southern Filipino province of North Cotabato, officials told the regional newspaper Mindanao Examiner.
Officials said one civilian was also injured in the blast that occurred in front of a convenience store in downtown area. The identity of the dead bomber was not immediately known, but the town had been bombed several times by suspected rebels in recent months.
Other reports said another man was also killed in the explosion.
The blast occurred just as a battalion of marines arrived Tuesday in nearby Maguindanao to augment army troops in the province, scene of deadly clashes between police commandos and former Moro Islamic Liberation Front rebels.
At least 44 commandos were killed in the fighting in Mamasapano town where police had been pursuing Filipino terrorist Basit Usman and Jemaah Islamiya bomber Zulkifli bin Hir, but intruded into MILF territories.
Just early this month, security forces disarmed an improvised explosive on a busy road in Pikit town. The explosive was still wrapped in packing tape when spotted by a villager who immediately informed authorities.
A series of explosion also toppled at least two power pylons in the province also this month and authorities blamed the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters as behind the bombings.
Late last year, a powerful bomb explosion injured more than a dozen people in downtown Kabakan in North Cotabato after a mortar bomb went off outside a public school and soldiers and policemen recovered two more explosives nearby. (Mindanao Examiner)
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