JI, MILF eyed in Kidapawan City blast

MANILA, Philippines - A powerful improvised explosive device (IED) went off in front of the gate of the satellite office of the Commission on Audit (COA) in Kidapawan City, North Cotabato, which the military said could be the handiwork of locally trained suspected Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) bombers.

Col. Prudencio Asto, spokes­man for the 6th Infantry Division, said no one was injured in the explosion but a power line of the Cotabato Electric Co. (Cotelco) near the gate of the COA office was destroyed.

“Our EOD (explosives and ordnance division) team is still processing and conducting an investigation,” Asto said, adding that they are eyeing a group of bombers trained by Basit Usman whom he tagged as a local operative and works for the regional terrorist network, Jemaah Islamiyah.

But Asto said yesterday’s blast, which bore the imprint of Basit, appeared not to be directed at anybody as it was carried out without a specific target.

A police official in Zamboanga City said a breakaway group of former Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) Amiril Umbra Kato was behind the fresh bombing attack.

This after the police intelligence tracked down the area where the suspected detonator initiated the call and detonated the bomb using a cellular phone in Barangay Amas near the COA office.

Director Felicisimo Khu, chief of the Directorate for Integrated Police Operation Western Mindanao (DIPO-WM) said the tracking details revealed that the area where the bomb was detonated was traced somewhere in Kidapawan area.

The two recovered bombs, one 81mm mortar and the other a 60mm both had remotely detonated devices.

Khu said the Kidapawan City blast including the recovery of two powerful improvised explosive devices along the national highway in Barangay Ducay, Esperanza in Sultan Kudarat “confirmed the intelligence reports we received of a bombing plan of the BIFF-SOG (Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighter-Special Operations Group).”

The BIFF is a faction created by Kato after he broke out from the MILF central committee last year due to differences in ideology.

Khu said the police forces have been alerted of the bombing plans of the insurgents and warned to raise the level of vigilance to thwart the possible staging of bombing attacks.

Superintendent Cornelio Salinas, director of the North Cotabato provincial police, said ordinance operatives are still trying to determine the type of IED used in the attack. 

Salinas said the bombing could also possibly be in retaliation for the recent arrest by operatives of the provincial police of several members of the Al-Khobar extortion ring in separate operations. – Jaime Laude, John Unson, Roel Pareño