Police tag BIFF in Isulan restaurant blast

SULTAN KUDARAT, Philippines — A terrorist group led by Abu Turaife is responsible for a bombing at a restaurant in Isulan town last week that hurt 18 people, police said.

Police Lt. Col. Aldrin Gonzalez, spokesman of the Regional Police Office-12, said they are building cases against Abu Turaife and his followers for the bombing of Carlito's Chicken House in Isulan.

Abu Toraife, whose real name is Abdumalik Esmael, is leader of one of three factions in the outlawed Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters, which all use the flag of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria as banner.

Abu Turaife’s group was also blamed for the two successive bombings in Isulan last year that resulted in the deaths of five people and injured more than 30 others.

Gonzalez said forensic experts and bomb disposal operatives have confirmed that the improvised explosive device used in the latest bombing in Isulan, capital town of Sultan Kudarat,  was an exact replica of what Abu Turaife’s group had used in recent IED attacks in central Mindanao.

Extortion, retaliation eyed as motives in Isulan eatery blast

READ: Extortion, retaliation eyed as motives in Isulan eatery blast

Retaliation attacks by BIFF

Major Gen. Cirilito Sobejana, commander of the Army’s 6th Infantry Division, on Monday urged vigilance amid mounting threats of more BIFF attacks to avenge the deaths of 11 more militants in military operations in Maguindanao province the past eight days.

Personnel of 6th ID recovered gun parts and materials for IEDs left by BIFF members as they fled during an encounter over the weekend in Barangay Tina in Shariff Aguak, Maguindanao.

Two soldiers were wounded in the spate of gunfights that preceded the recovery of the abandoned BIFF supplies that bomb-makers were to use in fabricating IEDs that can be detonated from a distance using mobile phones.

Local officials and barangay leaders said three BIFF bandits were wounded in the initial clashes in Barangay Tina and that one of them, a certain Kadir Ibra, eventually died from gunshot wounds on Sunday night.