GOVERNMENT troops have foiled another possible bomb attack as they recovered 12 improvised explosive devices (IEDs) following two separate clashes against Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF) in North Cotabato, officials said Saturday, December 28.

Major General Diosdado Carreon, Army’s sixth Infantry Division commander, said the first clash happened around 5:25 a.m. Friday, December 27, at Sitio Blah in Manaulanan Village, Pikit, North Cotabato.

Carreon said the troops were on security operations when they clashed against the group of Katato Samad, a bomb-maker and Special Operations Group battalion commander of the BIFF’s first division.

He said the BIFF rebels scampered to different directions while the troops from the Army’s seventh Infantry Battalion clashed against another group of BIFF rebels near the site of the first clash which lasted for about five minutes.

“Military troops currently clear the objectives and block possible withdrawal routes of eluding terrorists,” said Carreon, who is also the Joint Task Force Central commander.

He said the troops have recovered 12 improvised explosives following the two separate clashes. Lieutenant General Cirilito Sobejana, Western Mindanao Command (Westmincom) chief, said the BIFF terrorists are on the run as the troops launched offensives and “close in on rebel fighters.”

“Our forces deliberately operate to run down and neutralize terrorists behind the series of bomb attacks and ploys in central Mindanao,” Sobejana said.

He said they will sustain the combat operations as preemptive actions against hostile schemes and devices employed by terrorists.

The recovery of the 12 IEDs came five days after 12 people, including soldiers, were injured in two bomb explosions in Cotabato City and Libungan, North Cotabato. (SunSar Zamboanga)