Troops recover powerful bomb in South

COTABATO CITY – Government troops recovered a powerful improvised bomb on a corn field in the restive province of Maguindanao in the Muslim autonomous region where security forces continue to battle extremist groups allied with the Islamic State.

Army Col. Oriel Pangcog, commander of the 601st Infantry Brigade, said patrolling members of the 40th Infantry Battalion discovered the improvised explosive in the village of Matagobong in Ampatuan town over the weekend. 

Photos released by the 6th Infantry Division to regional newspaper Mindanao Examiner show the recovered improvised explosive.

He said the explosive was assembled from an 81mm mortar projectile rigged to a pair of batteries, a blasting cap and remote control transmitter. Pangcop described the bomb as a “high explosive anti-personnel mine.”

“They (troops) immediately cordoned the area to allow members of the Explosive Ordnance Disposal team to render safety procedures and disarm the IED,” he said.

Maj. Gen. Juvymax Uy, commander of the 6^th Infantry Division and the Joint Task Force Central Mindanao, has urged villagers to stay vigilant and immediately report to the authorities any suspected improvised explosives in their locality. “This kind of explosive, if not properly disposed of, could destroy properties and cause the loss of innocent lives,” he said.

No individual claimed ownership of the bomb, but several armed secessionist groups are actively operating in the province and had been fighting security forces for many decades now in an effort to put up a Islamic state in the South.

Most of the fighters were former members of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front whose leader Murad Ebrahim signed a peace deal with the government in March 2014. Ebrahim was eventually appointed as regional governor along with his deputies who now hold key positions in the autonomous region composed of other Muslim provinces Basilan, Sulu, Tawi-Tawi and Lanao del Sur. (Mindanao Examiner)