Army seizes bomb in Maguindanao

COTABATO CITY - Patrolling soldiers deactivated on Sunday a booby trap fashioned from a live fragmentation grenade laid on a farm trail in a hinterland in Talayan, Maguindanao.

Col. Prudencio Asto, public affairs chief of the Army’s 6th Infantry Division, said it was fortunate that none of the combatants of the 33rd Infantry Battalion patrolling in Barangay Matalam in Talayan stepped on the contraption set to trigger the grenade’s explosion.

Asto said barangay officials have asked soldiers in Talayan to continue searching for more unexploded improvised explosive devices and booby traps in their surroundings,  frequented by marauding members of the brigand Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF).

Soldiers have defused in the past three months more than 20 roadside bombs and improvised landmines made up of fragmentation grenades and live mortar rounds in areas where BIFF forces operate. John Unson