Two Dawlah Bomb-Makers Arrested in Maguindanao del Sur

COTABATO CITY, Philippines — Policemen and soldiers arrested two more wanted Dawlah Islamiya bomb-makers and seized two combat rifles in separate joint operations in two towns in Maguindanao del Sur province within just three days. Combatants of the Army’s 38th Infantry Battalion and the Army’s 601st Infantry Brigade clashed on Thursday morning with Dawlah Islamiya terrorists in Barangay Inaladan in Shariff Saydona Mustapha, forcing them to scamper away, leaving behind an M16 rifle and an M1 Garand rifle, both stained with blood, medicines for tuberculosis and diarrhea and shabu sniffing paraphernalia. Local executives and traditional Moro community leaders in Shariff Saydona Mustapha told reporters on Friday that Brig. Gen. Edgar Catu, commander of the 601st Infantry Brigade, dispatched the soldiers to Barangay Inaladan after villagers and local Muslim preachers reported having sighted some 10 Dawlah Islamiya members in the area, as if preparing for an attack. The terrorists traded shots with soldiers approaching their location from two areas for more than 10 minutes and ran away when they sensed that Army reinforcements, accompanied by Moro villagers as guides, were closing in. Pursuing personnel of the 38th IB, under Lt. Col. Erwin Felongco, found the two rifles and personal belongings of the Dawlah Islamiya terrorists along their escape route. Captain Steffie Salanguit, spokesperson of the Police Regional Office-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region, said on Friday that operatives from units of the Maguindanao del Sur Provincial Police Office, led by its director, Col. Michael John Mangahis, and combatants from the 601st Infantry Brigade arrested late Tuesday two Dawlah Islamiya members, Saidamen Amilil and Razid Hazim, in Barangay Tukanalipao in Mamasapano, not too distant from Shariff Saydona Mustapha. Officials of intelligence units under 6th ID, local executives and ranking members of the inter-agency Maguindanao del Sur Provincial Peace and Order Council confirmed to reporters on Friday that Amilil and Hazim are both well-versed in fabricating improvised explosive devices using ammonium nitrate or potassium chlorate as main blasting charges. Amilil and Hazim are both followers of the longtime Dawlah Islamiya bomb-maker Muslimin Amilil, who was arrested earlier on Tuesday by policemen and soldiers in a joint operation also in Barangay Tukanalipao. Soldiers and policemen had confiscated from the duo a .45 caliber pistol, a fragmentation grenade grenade and printed schematic diagrams of wiring contraptions of home-made bombs. Muslimin, wanted for multiple murder, multiple frustrated murder, armed robbery, arson, extortion and narcotics trafficking cases, was trained in assembling IEDs that can be detonated from a distance using mobile phones by the Malaysian terrorist Zulikifli Bin Bir, who was killed in an encounter with members of the police’s elite Special Action Force in an encounter in Pidsandawan area in Tukanalipao on Jan. 25, 2015. All three of them and Muslimin's wife, Aiza, who was also arrested on Tuesday for illegal possession of firearms and grenades, are now detained, awaiting prosecution in court.