Bomb yields prints of slain terrorists

Police are now closely monitoring the security situation in Cebu ahead of the Asean Summit here in December in the wake of Thursday's foiled attempt by suspected Muslim terrorists to explode a bomb outside the entrance to SM City Cebu.

A spokesman of the Philippine National Police, Senior Superintendent Samuel Pagdilao, yesterday said elements of Task Force Sanlahi have been sent to Cebu from Camp Crame to help in the investigation of the foiled bomb plot.

Pagdilao said security forces in Cebu will be augmented to ensure the safety of the delegates to the Asea Summit.

Pagdilao confirmed that a Muslim terrorist group called Rajah Sulayman Movement is now operating in the country but said it was too early to say if the two slain terrorists who tried to explode the bomb at SM were members of the group, as suspected by local police.

Police were able to confirm yesterday that the two men slain in a shootout with police were the same ones who planted the bombs at SM based on their handprints which matched those taken from the recovered explosives.

The explosives were made of rifle grenades strung together inside a shoe box and left just outside one of the entrances to the mall. Alert citizens called the attention of mall guards who immediately notified the police. As bomb experts disabled the bombs, other units pursued the suspects, killing them in a shootout.

Police reputy regional director Senior Superintendent Lani-o Nerez said a latent print taken from the rifle grenade bomb matched the handprint lifted from slain suspect Ali Usop, alias Datu Ismael Usop.

Nerez said findings by a team from the Bomb Data Center at Camp Crame led by Superintendent Albert Ferro showed the positive match.

Usop, together with Datu Neil Ulama alias Victor Ulama, tried to escape from the scene on foot when accosted by a joint team from several police units like the SWAT, MPG, CIIB and the Vice Control Section, and were killed in a futile attempt to shoot it out with the superior police force.

The bomb was made up of two M76 rifle grenades strung together by a detonating cord connected to an electric blasting cap secured by a black eletrical tape. They were in turn attached to a butane lighter fluid canister, parts of a clock, two nine-volt batteries,, an AA battery and wires. All were placed in an innocent-looking shoebox.

The bomb will be matched with bombs recovered in a police raid in Marikina City last April 27 to see if a pattern is emerging.

Cebu City police chief Melvin Gayotin said they are now trying to trace the source of the bomb materials, considering that the M76 rifle grenades are only sourced from the military. The other bomb components can easily be bought anywhere.