CAMP SIONGCO, Maguindanao, Philippines – A soldier was killed while another was badly wounded Wednesday night when motorcycle-riding men opened fire and lobbed grenades on a roadside Army detachment in Kabacan, North Cotabato, the military said.
Maj. Marlowe Patria, civil-military relations chief of the Army’s 6th Infantry Division, identified the fatality as Cpl. Rey Osoteo of the 7th Infantry Battalion, which has jurisdiction over North Cotabato’s adjoining Pikit, Kabacan and Carmen towns.
Osoteo’s wounded companion, Pfc. Dante Malik, was rushed by responding policemen and soldiers from nearby detachments to the Kabacan Medical Specialists Hospital.
Patria said the attackers pulled off in front of the 7th IB’s detachment in Barangay Osias, Kabacan town, took out rifles from jute sacks made to appear as if containing farm tools and opened fire.
The attackers also lobbed grenades at the roadside outpost before fleeing on motorcycles.
“The attack happened so fast,” Patria said.
Patria said they received reports from Army intelligence operatives and local officials that the attack was in retaliation for the Army having foiled an attempt by Moro extremists to bomb a bus terminal in Kabacan last Dec. 24.
Bystanders overheard two men talking to each other in the Maguindanaon dialect as planning to bring a bag containing a powerful improvised explosive in the bus terminal, but balked and left the bomb instead after seeing dozens of 7th IB members positioned near the parked buses and jeepneys.
The explosive, fashioned from a live 81-mm mortar projectile rigged with a blasting device attached to a mobile phone, was promptly deactivated.
Soldiers manning the Kabacan detachment have been actively helping police restrain the movements of shabu dealers in the town.
“The soldiers apparently caught the ire of criminal syndicates,” Patria said. – With Jaime Laude - By John Unson
