(UPDATE)7 hurt in North Cotabato roadside IED blast

NORTH COTABATO --- Seven were hurt in a roadside bombing in Aleosan town Wednesday night in another attack blamed on the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF).The victims --- Amerol Musa Tantos, Hanep Alipa Ayon, Yahya Kasan, Pahmi Daya Diamla, Johary Amerol, Salman Tahir and Jamal Pacalna --- were immediately rushed to a hospital by responding barangay officials and policemen.Local police probers said two improvised explosive devices were used in the bombing, rigged with a battery-operated blasting device that can be detonated from a distance.The IEDs, planted along a stretch of the Davao-Cotabato Highway in Barangay Pagangan in Aleosan town in the first district of North Cotabato, went off while a ten-wheeler hauler truck was passing by.The victims were hitchhikers riding on the rear bed of the truck. They sustained shrapnel wounds in different parts of their bodies.Senior InspectorEdwin Abantes, Aleosan police chief, said police investigators areyet to determine the exact identities of the people behind the IED attack.Local officials told reporters they have been receiving persistent feedback from constituents purporting that the outlawed BIFF was behind it.The BIFF, which is using the black flag of the Independent State of Iraq and Syria as its revolutionary banner, is blamed for all recent bombings in Aleosan and other towns in North Cotabato.The roadside bombing in Barangay Pagangan at 9:15 p.m. Wednesday was preceded by the grenade attack near the Santo Niño church in Midsayap on Saturday night.A traditional Christmas nativity mass was being held in the church when a bomber hurled a fragmentation grenade at a police patrol truck parked nearby.The suspect hurriedly left the scene riding a motorcycle driven by an accomplice.