2 soldiers hurt in `booby' trap blasts
Mindanao Armed Conflict • 06:30 AM Sun Nov 17, 2019
2
By:
John M. Unson
Personnel of units under 6th ID running after terrorists since Wednesday. (File photo)
MAGUINDANAO --- Two soldiers sustained multiple shrapnel wounds when they stepped on booby traps while running after Islamic State inspired militants Friday in Shariff Saidona town.
The first victim was Cpl. Alexander Flauta of the Army’s 90th Infantry Battalion.
He and companions were chasing Dawlah Islamiya terrorists fleeing from Barangay Dasawao in Shariff Saidona Mustapha, Maguindanao when he stepped on a tripwire attached to a small explosive packed with metal fragments with jagged edges.
Servicemen from different units of the Army’s 6th Infantry Division were dispatched early Friday to Barangay Dasawao to secure the abandoned Dawlah Islamiya enclaves in the area that artillery units bombarded with 105 Howitzer cannons early on.
Cpl. Rex Savada of the Army’s 57th IB was hurt when a small improvised explosive device planted along a muddy farm trail went off when his boot hit its blasting contraption while inspecting footprints on the route.
The Dawlah Islamiya, also known as the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters, has members who are good in fabrication of home-made explosives using either potassium chlorate, or ammonium nitrate, or explosive powders they scrape from dud cannon and mortar projectiles fired at their positions.
The group, operating in the fashion of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, is tagged in all deadly bombings in central Mindanao in recent years.
Army units under 6th ID have been running after Dawlah Islamiya gunmen in Shariff Saidona Mustapha since Thursday following a series of encounters in nearby Barangay Tukanalipao in Mamasapano, Maguindanao.
A member of the 33rd IB, Sgt. Randy Alivar, was killed while two of his companions, Privates 1st Class Ruel Sumilhig and Allan James Cabildo, were wounded in the skirmishes.
Members of the municipal peace and order councils in Maguindanao’s neighboring Mamasapano, in Datu Salibo, Shariff Saidona Mustapha and Datu Piang towns have confirmed that five Dawlah Islamiya terrorists perished in internecine clashes with soldiers in the past five days.