COTABATO CITY, Philippines – A government bomb disposal team defused on Sunday a bomb planted by suspected New People’s Army guerillas along the highway in Arakan, North Cotabato, police said.
Senior Inspector Rolly Oranza, chief of the Arakan municipal police, said the improvised explosive device (IED), was fashioned from combustible blasting charges packed with jagged metal fragments and rigged with trip wire.
Oranza said the IED was found on a grassy side of the highway in Barangay Bato-Bato, a secluded area in Arakan.
The rebels have set off more than 30 home-made bombs along the highways criss-crossing Arakan and surrounding towns in the past 13 months.
The foiled roadside bombing came just a day after suspected NPAs kidnapped Police Officer 2 Mike Ali not far from where the IED was found.