Airport bomber freed in Cotabato jail raid

COTABATO — Three heavily armed men raided the provincial prison here, liberating an inmate jailed for the bombing of the city airport, police said yesterday.

One jail guard was wounded in the gunbattle when the three men, dressed like soldiers and carrying assault rifles, swooped down on the jail, freeing Barudin Dalungan, a suspected Muslim extremist who was being held for the 2003 bombing of the Cotabato airport.

The bombing razed much of the airport terminal but killed no one.

It was one of a series of bombings that wracked Mindanao and which were seen as attempts to divert the government’s attention from its offensives against the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF).

Dalungan and the men who freed him are believed to be members of a special urban operations squad of the MILF, city police chief Superintendent Peraco Macacuja said.

However, MILF spokesmen never admitted that Dalungan was a member of the group.

The 12,000-strong MILF has been waging a rebellion for an independent Islamic state in Mindanao since 1978.

The MILF and the government signed a ceasefire in 2003, which has paved the way for peace talks. Despite the ceasefire, skirmishes and bombings still occasionally take place. — AFP