Vigilant tipsters gave 4 bus bombing suspects away -- Army

CARMEN, North Cotabato - Tipsters led soldiers to the location here of the four bus bombing suspects soldiers killed in an encounter Saturday.

Alleged bus bombers Norodin Hassan, a known senior official of the Dawlah Islamiya, and his henchmen, Abdonilla Hassan and Abdunhaq Hassan, and a still unidentified gunman were killed in a clash with pursuing soldiers in a secluded area here.

A five-year-child was killed while six others, among them two preschool children and a five-month-old infant, were hurt when a powerful blast ripped through a unit of the Mindanao Star Bus Tuesday while at a stretch of the Cotabato-Davao Highway in Barangay San Mateo in Aleosan, North Cotabato.

Vigilant North Cotabato residents had identified the suspects and reported their presence in one of the barangays here, enabling personnel of the Army’s 602^nd Infantry Brigade to track them down.

“We would not have learned of their presence in an interior area in Carmen if not for the information shared confidentially by residents to the 602^nd Infantry Brigade,” Major Gen. Juvymax Uy, 6^th ID’s commander, said Sunday.

Army and police intelligence agents are still trying to identify the fourth suspect who was killed in the shootout.

Soldiers who raided their hideout were forced to neutralize them when they opened fire, sparking a gunbattle.

Their assault rifles were confiscated by the Army teams involved in the operation.