MANILA, Philippines - Bandits trained by slain Malaysian terrorist Zulkifli bin Hir, alias Marwan, and his cohort, Abdul Basit Usman were behind the latest bombing incidents in Maguindanao, sources said yesterday.
The sources, which included members of different municipal peace and order councils in the second district of the province, said the group is led by Bongos, the head of the outlawed Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF).
Bongos, who assumed the BIFF leadership after the death of its founder Ameril Umbra Kato last year, has sworn allegiance to the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria.
The same BIFF bomb experts were also tagged in an explosion in Datu Salibo town on Feb. 16 that killed four persons, including the municipal treasurer and his son.
Sources said the group was trained to make bombs by Marwan and Usman in a remote village in Mamasapano town.
Local officials tagged the same group in last Friday’s bombing in Guindulungan, which left two police officers wounded.
Police Officer 2 Abdurahman Lampak and PO3 Modarie Salibo, both of the Guindulungan municipal police, were in a patrol jeep with five others when an improvised explosive device (IED) went off in Barangay Bagan at around 9 p.m.
Local officials said the bomb was detonated from a distance using a mobile phone.
After the explosion, the bombers opened fire at the patrol jeep, triggering a 30-minute firefight.
The bandits retreated when reinforcement from the military arrived.
2 rebels nabbed for bomb try
Meanwhile, two suspected communist rebels were caught planting IEDs in Mabini, Compostela Valley on Saturday.
Ronie Mimi, 23, and his cousin Sonny Mimi, 22, were arrested in Barangay Golden Valley at around 9:30 a.m., according to Cpt. Ryan Batchar, spokesman for the Army’s 10th Infantry Division.
The arrest was made hours after an IED exploded in sitios Logdeck and Candinuyan at past midnight, which left five soldiers wounded.
Security forces recovered three IEDs, a motorcycle and bomb-making paraphernalia from the suspects. – With Alexis Romero