IED explodes near Army detachment

NORTH COTABATO, Philippines - Gunmen detonated Wednesday night an improvised explosive near a roadside Army detachment in North Cotabato's Pikit town, the second bombing in Central Mindanao since Tuesday.

No one was reported hurt in the bombing in Barangay Batulawan in Pikit but the explosion caused panic among residents in farming enclaves nearby.

Local officials said there is a possibility that the BIFF was responsible for setting off the bomb near a detachment of the Army’s 7th Infantry Battalion in Barangay Batulawan.

The local police is not discounting the possibility that the bombers were extortionists trying to intimidate owners of cargo trucks plying the Cotabato-Davao Highway at nighttime for them to shell out "protection money" on a regular basis.

The blast that rocked Pikit was preceded by the bombing near the headquarters of the Army’s 6th Civil-Military Operations Battalion at the PC Hill in the center of Cotabato City.

Army intelligence sources said the bombing in Cotabato City was a BIFF diversionary attack, meant to create the impression that the group is capable of perpetrating atrocities outside of Maguindanao.

Combined Army and Marine combatants have been running after BIFF bandits in six Maguindanao towns since March 1.

At least four Army combatants and two members of the Philippine Marine Corps have been killed in encounters with the BIFF since the operation started.

Policemen and soldiers on Wednesday promptly deactivated six powerful roadside bombs planted by BIFF bandits along stretches of a road connecting the towns of Columbio, Sultan Kudarat and Datu Paglas, Maguindanao.