The components of the Improvised Explosive Device used in the bombing of a chicken restaurant in Isulan, Sultan Kudarat last Wednesday were similar to those used in the twin bombings in Isulan last year, police said yesterday.
“The bomb experts noticed that the components of the IED which exploded in Carlito’s Chicken Haus are similar to the ones used in the two bombing incidents in Isulan last year,” Police Brig. Gen. Eliseo Tam Rasco, director of the Philippine National Police Regional Office 12, said after the post-blast investigation conducted by bomb experts at Carlito’s Chicken Haus in Barangay Kalawag 2.
Eighteen persons were injured in the latest bombing – six minors and 12 adults. Rasco said seven injured victims have been released from the hospital while the others are still recuperating.
Rasco was referring to the twin bombings in the capital town of Sultan Kudarat last year, one during a town festival on Aug. 28 and another at an Internet cafe on Sept. 2, which killed six persons and wounded 48 others.
Police Lt. Col. Aldrin Gonzales, PRO 12 spokesperson, said bomb experts found concrete nails, parts of a cellular phone, a battery, and a barrel of a water pump at the blast site.
“The fragments that our Explosive Ordnance Division found were really similar to the IEDs used last year. It does not necessarily mean that the structure of the bombs was alike but the components used were similar,” Gonzales said.
In the twin bombings last year, police noted that the suspects used a nine-volt battery as a power source and a barrel of a water pump as the body of the IED. The IEDs were cellphone-detonated.
According to Rasco, such bomb structure is the trademark of the Abu Turaife Group, an Islamic State-inspired local threat group in Sultan Kudarat which police said was also behind the twin bombings last year. (Martin Sadongdong)