MANILA: Philippine militant groups are attempting to stage a comeback in the country’s south, an army spokesperson said Saturday, after security forces killed 10 suspected members of a Daesh affiliate.
The Western Mindanao Command of the Armed Forces of the Philippines, which has jurisdiction over the country’s south, said security forces killed 10 members of the Maute Group, also known as Islamic State Lanao — a militant group linked to bombings and other deadly attacks in the southern Philippines, and who pledged allegiance to Daesh in 2015.
The operation took place in Marantao village in Lanao del Sur province in the early hours of Friday. Among those killed was the chief of the faction, Amerol Mangoranca, also known as Usman, and another high-ranking member identified as Muslih.
“They’re trying to be resurgent; they want to prove that they are still capable of organizing,” Western Mindanao Command spokesperson Col. Roden Orbon told Arab News. “They were doing some recruitment. They are trying to do this discreetly because they are aware that our troops are conducting extensive and intensive intelligence operations. Fortunately for us, we were able to pinpoint them the other day and this resulted in the neutralization of these 10 members.”
In 2017, the Philippine army launched a massive military operation in Marawi City in the southern Philippines. The five-month battle left more than 1,100 people dead and displaced over 300,000 residents, with hundreds more wounded.
Marawi City was overrun by fighters from the Maute group and Daesh, known as the Islamic State — East Asia Province, triggering the siege of Marawi, one of the longest-lasting battles against militants in the southern Philippines.
Military officials said Mangoranca and his fighters were responsible for a January ambush in the southern Lanao del Norte province, which killed four soldiers and wounded another.
Though the Maute Group has been largely wiped out, the Philippine military is continuing “pursuit operations against the remaining members of the group” and working on new leads, the Western Mindanao Command spokesperson Orbon said, adding that the group likely now comprises fewer than 10 people.
After the killing of Omar Maute and Abdullah Maute, the main leaders of the Maute Group, during the 2017 Marawi operation, security forces also killed other top Daesh-linked fighters, including Isnilon Hapilon, who was the Islamic State’s designated leader in Southeast Asia.
