Supporters of slain Afghanistan-trained bomber may retaliate - military

COTABATO CITY - Authorities are anticipating possible retaliatory attacks by followers of a notorious Moro bomber killed by lawmen on Monday in Datu Paglas town in Maguindanao.

Yusoph Kusain, also known as Commander TMX, said to have undergone training in fabrication of home-made explosives by Taliban instructors in Kandahar, Afganistan, was killed by agents of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group for resisting arrest.

CIDG agents were forced to neutralize Kusain when he pulled out a handgun from his waist and opened fire as they tried to peacefully convince him to yield during a raid at his hideout in a secluded village in Datu Paglas town in the second district of Maguindanao.

Kusain is wanted for a series of deadly bombings between 2006 and 2009, including an attack at a multi-national tuna cannery in General Santos City.

Two of the policemen in the team that raided Kusain’s lair were wounded in the ensuing shootout.

Chief Superintendent Noel delos Reyes, director of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) police, said the lawmen who tried to serve Kusain the arrest warrant managed to locate his whereabouts with the help of local officials and barangay leaders.

Sources from the Army’s intelligence community said Kusain had links with both the Al-Qaeda and its Asian cell, the Jemaah Islamiya.

Delos Reyes said he had alerted the provincial police offices in Maguindanao and Lanao del Sur to guard against possible retaliations by the followers of Kusain.

Kusain’s group has reportedly been critical about the on-going peace overture between the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front.

Col. Dickson Hermoso, spokesman of the Army’s 6th Infantry Division, said units of 6th Infantry Division in Maguindanao and North Cotabato have also deployed plainclothes operatives in bus terminals and public markets to help the police thwart possible retaliatory attacks by cohorts of the slain bomber.