A TERRORIST trained in bomb-making techniques by a Malaysian-trained extremist was killed in a firefight with police and military forces in Maguindanao early dawn Sunday.
Police reports identified the slain bomb expert as Muhammad Ali, alias Abu Mohammad, resident of Barangay Kitango, Datu Saudi, Maguindanao.
The bomb expert, a member of the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters, was slain after he resisted security forces serving a search warrant against him, sparking a skirmish in the village of Capiton.
Ali was facing charges of illegal possession of firearms, ammunition and explosives, according to the search warrant issued by Judge Alandrez Betoya of the Regional Trial Court 12 Judicial Branch 15 in Cotabato City.
Records showed that Ali is a BIFF bomb instructor and prodigy of slain Usman Bassit, the former head of the Special Operations Group of the BIFF, a splinter group of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front.
Usman was killed last May 4, four months after his Malaysian bomb-trainer, Zulkifli bin Hir, alias Marwan was slain in a botched police operation that resulted in the death of 44 members of the Special Action Force troopers in the Mamasapano village of Guindalungan, Maguindanao in January 2015.
Ali was the object of a years-long hunt for his involvement in various bomb attacks against military detachments in Maguindanao.
During the actual search minutes after the slaying of Ali, police and military personnel recovered from his supposed hideout one 60mm mortar, a fragmentation grenade, and an Ingram machine pistol.
Also seized from Ali’s safe house were seven 9-volt batteries, 16 blasting caps, nine battery connectors, four cutting tools, four cell phones, a handheld radio, a detonating cord, one Globe Positioning System device and a laptop computer.
The killing of Ali came just a week after security forces pinned down 10 suspected members of the BIFF in a clash in the outskirts of Bual village in Sultan Kudarat. With Florante S. Solmerin