Suspected MNLF bomb expert arrested in Sulu

Government security forces arrested over the weekend in Sulu a suspected bomb expert of the Moro National Liberation Front allegedly involved in the 2009 land mine attack that killed two US soldiers and a Filipino Marine in 2009.

“Moro National Liberation Front bomb expert Mihaji Hamjuda Mahang was arrested by joint police and military elements,” Director Benjamin Magalong of the Philippine National Police Criminal Investigation and Detection Group said Monday.

Mahang was arrested around 10:30 a.m. Sunday Magalong said.

The suspect was expected to be brought to Zamboanga City, afterwhich to Cebu “for his eventual commitment to court,” the police official added.

“Mahang was the bomb maker in the 2009 Kagay roadside bombing incident which killed three military men, including two United States soldiers and a Philippine Marine,” Magalong said.

In 2009, an ally of the MNLF claimed responsibility for the attack.

The attack on the American soldiers was in retaliation for the continued operations of the US and Philippine military against the MNLF in the southern province of Sulu, a deputy commander of the Bangsamoro National Liberation Army said then.

Mahang has a standing warrant of arrest from the Regional trial court branch four in Parang, Sulu, police said.

US troops have been are deployed in Sulu since 2006 and assisting the Philippine military in defeating the Abu Sayyaf.

Although security officials deny US forces were directly involved in combat operations, there were numerous reports from civilians and various civil groups that American soldiers actually participated in the operations aimed at capturing or killing militant leaders in Sulu and other parts of Mindanao. — with Patricia Denise Chiu/RSJ, GMA News