An “accidental explosion” of improvised explosive devices killed the wife of an alleged Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighter member last Thursday in Barangay Kabasalan, Pikit, North Cotabato.
Major Gen. Diosdado Carreon, commander of the Armed Forces of the Philippines-Joint Task Force Central, said the explosion occurred at the safehouse of Alimoden Masla.
Alimoden and his 10-year-old son were wounded in the explosion.
Carreon said they received intelligence information that the BIFF was planning to launch fresh IED attacks in urban and populated areas in Central Mindanao. They conducted security operations in Barangay Dasawao, Shariff Saydona Mustapha, Maguindanao to thwart the hostile plan.
The operations against the BIFF in Maguindanao reached militant and Islamic State groups in North Cotabato and thought they were also being attacked by the government forces, Carreon added.
“Due to the carelessness of these lawless terrorist groups, they accidentally triggered an explosion of the IEDs being kept in their houses,” he said.
Masla is a member of the BIFF under the command of Abdul Haber Usman, alias “Commander Edsgrafil,” one of the key leaders of the group under the Bungos faction. The group has around 20 armed members.
Commander Edsgrafil and his cohorts were said to be in-charge of the transportation and dispatch of IEDs being kept at the group’s safehouses in Pikit which serve as the “launching point” of bomb attacks perpetrated in North Cotabato and Sultan Kudarat. (Martin Sadongdong)
