Government bomb experts defuse JI bomb in Tacurong

COTABATO CITY – An improvised explosive device (IED) exploded prematurely at the market in Isulan, Sultan Kudarat while another was promptly defused by Army bomb experts in Tacurong City in separate bombing attempts at dawn yesterday by suspected Moro rebels, police and military officials said.

No one was killed or injured in the blast, but the explosion triggered panic in Isulan and prompted the local police to deploy more policemen in the town’s bus terminal and other busy spots to prevent a repeat of the bombing attempt.

Reports gathered by The STAR from Tacurong City police said that at around 6:35 a.m. yesterday, a member of Tacurong City police station, identified as PO3 Jun Bacea, found an unattended brown paper bag near a canal at Malvar Street here.

The paper bag was placed a few meters away from a multicab terminal bound for Isulan town.

Bacea immediately informed the police and military Explosive Ordnance Demolition (EOD) teams, who responded with K-9 sniffing dogs and immediately cordoned the area.

In his report to Central Mindanao police director Chief Superintendent Felizardo Serapio, Senior Superintendent Joel Limson, city police chief of Tacurong, said the paper bag contained IED, composed of two 81-millimeter mortars with Nokia 3310 cellular phone as triggering devices, black 9-volt batteries and arming device and circuit boards with marking of “Jemaah Islamiyah.”

Col. Marlou Salazar, commander of the Army’s 601st Brigade, said they are certain the bomb, left near the entrance gate of the Isulan public market, was set to explode at sunrise when local residents flock there for their daily marketing activities, but went off about two hours earlier.

“Because it exploded prematurely, no one was hurt. Our intelligence operatives are now helping the police investigate the incident,” Salazar said.

Lt. Col. Julieto Ando, spokesman of the Army’s 6th Infantry Division, said military ordnance operatives have also defused an IED, fashioned from a live 60 MM mortar projectile, near a bakery in Tacurong City, less than 10 kms. away from Isulan, capital town of Sultan Kudarat.

“The bakery is near a private hospital. It was just fortunate that patrolling soldiers found it before it was timed to explode,” Ando said.

More than a dozen bombings occurred in Isulan and Tacurong City in the past two years.

Local officials, among them members of the Sultan Kudarat provincial peace and order council, said they are convinced the group of the radical Islamist Ameril Umbra Kato, commander of the 105th Base Command of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, was responsible for the twin bombing attempts.

Kato, said to be recuperating from gunshot wounds sustained in an encounter with soldiers at the border of Shariff Kabunsuan and Maguindanao last month, has dozens of followers trained in handling of explosives by members of the Jemaah Islamiya.

Kato, a preacher trained in the Middle East, is himself known for his links with the Al-Qaeda. – John Unson, Ramil Bajo and Jaime Laude