‘Southeast Asia IS head killed’
THE head of the Islamic State (IS) group in Southeast Asia was killed in a battle to reclaim a militant-held city in the Philippines, officials said yesterday.
Isnilon Hapilon was on the United States’ most wanted terrorists list and his death was reported in a final push to end a nearly fivemonth siege of Marawi.
The battle for the city has claimed more than 1 000 lives and raised fears that IS was seeking to set up a regional base in the southern Philippines.
President Rodrigo Duterte and security analysts said Hapilon, 51, had been a key figure in the jihadist movement’s drive to establish a Southeast Asian caliphate as it suffered battlefield defeats in Iraq and Syria.
Philippine military chief of staff General Eduardo Ano showed a photograph of what he said was Hapilon’s bloodied face.
The military said the longhaired leader had been killed in a dawn offensive alongside Omarkhayam Maute, one of two brothers who worked with Hapilon to plot the takeover of Marawi.
“It’s a big deal for us that they were killed,” Defence Secretary Delfin Lorenzana said.
Hapilon’s death was a symbolic blow to regional militancy because he had been declared the emir of the IS in the region.
The US had offered a $5-million (R66.5million) bounty for information leading to Hapilon’s arrest, describing him as a senior leader of the southern Philippines- based Abu Sayyaf group, which the US considers a foreign terrorist organisation.
Hapilon is believed to have also been involved in the 2001 kidnappings of three Americans, two of whom were later killed.
Ano said Philippine forces had launched an assault, sparking a gun battle that lead to the deaths.
Lorenzana said DNA tests would be carried out on the bodies because of the reward offer from the US and Philippine governments. “The Marawi battle is almost over and we may announce the termination of hostilities soon,” he said.
Philippine authorities have made several previous broadcasts on the imminent end of the conflict, but observers believe this time the forecast is likely to be accurate.
Pro-IS gunmen occupied parts of Marawi, the Islamic capital of the mainly Catholic country, in May.
Since then the insurgents have withstood a relentless US-backed bombing campaign and intense ground battles that have left parts of Marawi in ruins and 400 000 residents displaced. – AFP