Soldiers gun down 4 suspects in North Cotabato bus bombing

CARMEN, North Cotabato — Soldiers killed in a clash Saturday four suspects in the bombing of a passenger bus Tuesday that left a five-year-old child dead and hurt six others.

Major Gen. Juvymax Uy, commander of the Army’s 6th Infantry Division, on Saturday said bombing suspects Norodin Hassan, who is a senior official of the Dawlah Islamiya terror group, and his henchmen, Abdonilla, Abdunhaq, both also surnamed Hassan, were killed in an encounter with pursuing soldiers in a secluded area in Carmen, North Cotabato.

Army and police intelligence agents are still trying to identify the fourth suspect also killed in the shootout.

The Dawlah Islamiya has a reputation for bombing commercial establishments and public conveyances if owners refuse to shell out “protection money” on monthly basis.

“We have validated reports stating that these men pulled off the bombing of a unit of the Mindanao Star Bus five days ago in Aleosan municipality,” Uy, also commander of the anti-terror Joint Task Force Central, told reporters via online Messenger.

A five-year-child was killed while six others, among them two preschool children and a five-month-old infant, were hurt when a powerful blast ripped through a unit of the Mindanao Star Bus Tuesday while its driver was maneuvering through a stretch of the Cotabato-Davao Highway in Barangay San Mateo in Aleosan town in the first district of North Cotabato.