Camp of ISIS-inspired group captured in SoCot

GENERAL SANTOS CITY -- Police captured an alleged camp of an Islamic State-inspired local terror group and recovered improvised explosives during an operation on Sunday in South Cotabato.

Chief Supt. Eliseo Rasco, regional director of the Police Regional Office (PRO)-12, said elements from the Regional Mobile Force Battalion (RMFB)-12 found the abandoned encampment at a portion of Sitio Malyango, Barangay Lapu in Polomolok town in at around 4 a.m.

Rasco said the operating team, which was led by Supt. Barney Condes, swooped on the site to serve a warrant of arrest against suspect Joefry Tuanadatu Nilong, who is wanted for illegal possession of firearms and ammunition.

Police failed to catch the suspect and his alleged cohorts but instead discovered an encampment in the area, he said.

"They were able to escape and evade arrest before the team reached the site," Rasco said on Monday.

Rasco said the team recovered two suspected improvised explosive devices, a kilogram of black powder, electrical wires, a blasting cap, cellular phones and two t-shirts printed with symbols of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS).

Pursuit operations are ongoing against Nilong and his cohorts, in coordination with the Armed Forces of the Philippines and other law enforcement units, the police official added.

Supt. Aldrin Gonzales, PRO-12 public information officer, said the armed group was linked to terror group Ansar Al-Khilafah Philippines (AKP), which had pledged support to the ISIS.

AKP, which originated in Sarangani Province, was reportedly a part of the local network of the Maute Group.

The group supposedly merged with the armed elements based in Polomolok after its leader, Tokboy Maguid, was killed in an encounter with joint operatives in Kiamba, Sarangani in January last year.

Last week, operatives arrested an alleged member of the Polomolok-based group, who was later tagged as the primary suspect in the bomb attack here last September 16 that left eight people wounded.

Suspect Jeffrey Panag Alonzo, 39, was nabbed on September 19 in a buy-bust operation in Barangay Lapu, Polomolok town.

Rasco said the suspect was positively identified by witnesses as the same person, who planted the bomb that went off before noon near the Bonita Lying-in Clinic in Makar junction, Purok Malipayon in Barangay Apopong. (PNA)