MARAWI CITY – At least 7 members of the Presidential Security Group were seriously injured in a roadside explosion Tuesday morning in Marawi City in Lanao del Sur, one of 5 provinces under the restive Muslim autonomous region.
The soldiers were part of an advance security team of President Duterte who is scheduled Wednesday to visit soldiers wounded in fierce clashes with the jihadists in Butig town.
No individual or group claimed responsibility for the bombing which occurred in the village of Matampay. But suspicion fell heavily on the group of Abdullah Maute, leader of the jihadist Dawla Islamiya Fi Cotabato, which pledged allegiance to the Islamic State.
Maute led hundreds of gunmen this week in Butig and occupied the old municipal building and other structures and hoisted the Islamic flag.
The military’s Western Mindanao Command did not issue any statement on the bombing, but sporadic fighting continues in Butig where security forces were trying to liberate the town from the Maute group. (Mindanao Examiner)
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