Marine killed, 4 hurt in Maguindanao bomb attack

MAGUINDANAO, Philippines — A Marine was killed while four others were injured late Friday when a bomb hit their vehicle while en route to a secluded area to reinforce Army troops fighting Dawlah Islamiya bandits.

The fatality, identified only as Private Angot, belonged to the Navy’s 5th Marine Battalion under the 1st Marine Brigade securing neighboring towns in the border of Maguindanao and Lanao del Sur provinces.

The bomb went off while the vehicle carrying Angot and other Marines was motoring through a road leading to a hill in Barangay Limpongo in Datu Hoffer, Maguindanao.

Major Gen. Juvymax Uy of the Army’s 6th Infantry Division said Saturday their combatants are trying to cordon in an upland area in Datu Hofer since Friday morning a group of Dawlah Islamiya terrorists tagged in deadly bombings in central Mindanao in the past five years.

The powerful improvised explosive device used in Friday night's attack, detonated from a distance using a mobile phone, was packed with metal fragments with jagged edges.

The explosion hurt four Marines, Sergeants Erasmo and Ahmad and Privates 1st Class Nolledo and Ullanes.

Units of 6th ID have been running after small ragtag groups of the outlawed Dawlah Islamiya, also known as the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters, since Friday dawn.

The group, fashioned from the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, has a reputation for using roadside bombs against civilian and military targets to avenge deaths of members in clashes with state security forces.

Uy said the 6th ID’s anti-terror operation in Datu Hoffer was launched after local leaders in Maguindanao reported a plot by the Dawlah Islamiya to pull off bomb attacks to create the impression that it has not been weakened by heavy losses in recent clashes with the military.

More than a hundred bandits have renounced membership with the Dawlah Islamiya in the past three years through the joint intercession of the 6th ID and elected officials in Maguindanao and North Cotabato provinces