CAMP SIONGCO, Maguindanao — Suspected IS-inspired armed militants set off a roadside bomb on a Maguindanao highway Monday, wounding two militiamen conducting road security patrol.
Elements of the 25th Maguindanao Civilian Armed Auxiliary of the 38th Infantry Battalion were conducting foot patrol and road security along the national highway Barangay Labo-Labo 2, Datu Hofer, Maguindanao, when the homemade bomb fashioned from black powder with cut nails as trigger mechanism went off at around 6:40 a.m.
The explosion hit Civilian Armed Forces Geographical Unit members Freddie Lupos on his right arm, and Michael Dayo on the right upper leg.
The Army’s 6th Infantry Division here, in a statement, said that the two militiamen were now safe after receiving medical treatment at its battalion headquarters.
Overnight, it had been quiet in the battlefront between government forces and BIFF.
On Saturday night and early Sunday, a series of military airstrikes and artillery offensives left at least six BIFF killed, bodies of whom were recovered by elements of the 601st Infantry Brigade.
Among the dead was Abu Omar who, according to the Army, was a bomb expert of the IS-linked BIFF faction of Commander Bungos. Omar, according to military intelligence sources, trained under slain Malaysian bomb expert Zulkifli bin Hir who was killed in the January 2015 police operations in Mamasapano, Maguindanao.
Capt. John Arvin Encinas, 6ID spokesperson, said that more BIFF men could have died during the offensives aimed at preventing the lawless elements from harassing Teduray communities. (Edwin Fernandez/PNA)
