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Explosion rocks Cotabato City and Maguindanao, 1 hurt

Blast site along Sinsuat Avenue in front of Aling Precy restaurant

COTABATO CITY (April 18) – A series of grenade attacks perpetrated by two men riding tandem on motorbike hit Cotabato City and Maguindanao Saturday night, police said. The first grenade attack occurred at a police detachment in Barangay Tamontaka 2, Datu Odin Sinsuat, Maguindanao at past 7 p.m. Nobody was hurt. Police said the suspects riding tandem on a motorbike tossed the grenade as it approached the police detachment and sped away. Shortly before 8 p.m., the same suspects tossed a hand grenade at a military vehicle of the Army Special Forces Battalion conducting patrol along Sinsuat Avenue, particularly near Aling Precy restaurant. The blast damaged the restaurant’s glass panes and wounded a certain Dalmacio Villa who was rushed to the Cotabato Regional and Medical Center. An Army truck driver said he noticed a motorbike with two men on board overtook his truck. The back rider tossed a grenade towards the driver side as the Army truck was in front of Aling Precy Restaurant along Sinsuat Avenue. “We were lucky the grenade bumped off the glass window and few seconds later a loud explosions occurred,” he told this reporter. “They immediately sped away. We chased the suspects but traffic along Sinsuat Avenue prevented us from catching up with them,” the driver, who asked not to be named, added. He said his companions could not fire at the fleeing suspects as there were many civilians along the highway. The suspects fled toward Notre Dame Avenue where they left behind an improvised bomb in front of Special Forces detachment in Barangay Rosary Heights 2. Senior Insp. Efren Salazar, police station 1 chief, said the IED, fashioned from 60 mm mortar, did not explode. As of posting, police and Army bomb experts are still conducting post blast investigation. No one has claimed responsibility for the attacks. (Ferdinandh Cabrera)