Isulan bomb suspect killed in military operation

HOMEMADE BOMBS. Improvised bomb materials recovered by military troopers on a safehouse by Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters during a law enforcement operation Friday (Oct. 6, 2018) in Sitio Lab, Barangay Kuloy, Shariff Aguak, Maguindanao. A suspected bomber linked to the recent Isulan, Sultan Kudarat bombings was neutralized during the operation. (Photo by 6ID)

CAMP SIONGCO, Maguindanao — Government troops shot dead a suspect linked to the recent twin bombings in Isulan, Kudarat during a pre-dawn law enforcement operation in Maguindanao on Friday.

Major Gen. Cirilito Sobejana, Army’s 6th Infantry Division commander, identified the slain suspect as Norodin Taib, an alleged member of the Islamic State - Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF) faction that carried out the Aug. 28 and Sept. 2 bomb attacks in Isulan town.

He said soldier elonging to the Army’s 601st Infantry Brigade swooped down the safehouse of Taib in Sitio Lab, Barangay Kuloy, Shariff Aguak at around 2 a.m. Friday.

The suspect, however, resisted arrest by lobbing a grenade at the approaching soldiers.

“The grenade-throwing incident prompted the soldiers to neutralize him (Taib),” Sobejana said on Saturday.

Three other cohorts of Taib, who were with him at the time of the raid, managed to elude arrest.

Troops recovered one improvised explosive device, two improvised hand grenades, three cellphones and subversive documents from the radicals’ safehouse.

Pursuit operations are still ongoing against the remaining BIFF members in the interiors of Shariff Aguak town. (PNA/By Noel Punzalan/ Re-posted by; Becky D. de Asis-The Redline News )