ZAMBOANGA CITY – Government soldiers disarmed Monday an improvised explosive planted at a government school in Lamitan City in the restive province of Basilan in the Muslim autonomous region in Mindanao.
The explosive was discovered inside the Colonia Elementary School. It was unknown how the bomber managed to smuggled the explosive inside the school. The discovery of the explosive came a day after a bomb attack in North Cotabato’s Kabacan town killed a student and injured 17 others.
Officials said the improvised explosive, fashioned out from a mortar bomb, went off late Sunday outside the Kabacan Central Pilot School. Soldiers and policemen who responded to the attack have recovered two more explosives nearby.
“The IED exploded near the gate of Kabacan Central Pilot School. Two more bombs were discovered at an overpass near the school and were immediately disrupted by in the area,” Captain Jo Ann Petinglay, of the 6th Infantry Division’s Public Affairs Office, told The Manila Times.
No individual or group has claimed responsibility for the violence, but police and military were looking into the involvement of the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters, who recently pledged allegiance to the jihadist group ISIS or the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria. “We are suspecting the BIFF as the culprit,” Petinglay said.
Another bomb, planted near an army post in the village of Banayal in North Cotabato’s Tulunan town, also exploded over the weekend. There were no reports of casualties, but the attack sent a chilling warning that even in the presence of troops in the village, rebels can easily sneak and stage attacks undetected by security forces.
The bomb was assembled from a 60mm mortar and rigged to a detonator. The 39th Infantry Battalion maintains several posts in the area.
Just recently, a mortar attack also killed an eight-year girl and an adult man and injured three more people in nearby Pikit town where security forces are battling the BIFF. The 6th Infantry Division quickly blamed the attack on the BIFF, but the rebel group pointed to the soldiers as behind the shelling.
The provincial government has offered P100,000 reward for anyone who can provide information that would lead to the arrest of the bombers. (Mindanao Examiner. Ely Dumaboc and Moh Saaduddin)
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