Extremist, 2 civilians killed in Lanao encounter
COTABATO CITY – A local extremist militant, who was wearing an Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) headband, and two civilians were killed in an encounter that could have foiled a reported attempt to ambush soldiers who were patrolling an area in BauiapusoBuntong, Lanao del Sur Friday.
The military did not identify the slain extremist but confirmed that he belonged to a group that supported the extremist ideologies of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS).
A civilian source said that he belonged to Ghuraba, a local jihadist group which is known to be an armed branch of the Khilaffa Islamic Movement (KIM) in Mindanao. Khilaffa is an Arabic term for caliphate.
Col. Roseller Murillo, commander of the Army’s 103rd Infantry Brigade based in Marawi City, identified the two slain civilians as Panundi Sultan and his son Noble.
Murillo said the civilians were killed when they tried to confront some armed men, whom they believed to be extremist elements under the leadership of a certain Maute, on a road in barangay Gata in Buadipuso-Buntong town Friday afternoon.
Sultan and his son reportedly asked the armed men what they were doing in the area, but were immediately fired upon and killed.
"Relatives of the victims retaliated in a firefight which killed one of the terrorists, who was wearing a headband with an ISIS symbol,” Murillo said.
"An Army report further disclosed that the terrorists were in an ambush position waiting for a military vehicle," Murillo said.
The group of extremists could have been part of another armed group that soldiers from the 65th Infantry Battalion, which were patrolling a village in Barangay Lilod in Maguing town, encountered earlier that day, resulting in the killing another extremist and wounding of another.
Murillo said the armed group engaged by government troops in Maguing could be part of the armed group which was seen by the Sultans as positioning itself in Buadaipuso Buntong.
Murillo said the troops recovered one M4 rifle.
"We are closely monitoring the movement and veracity of reported locally inspired ISIS operating in Lanao del Sur and Marawi City,” Murillo said.
The military national leadership had earlier dismissed reports on the alleged presence of ISIS men in the south, but gave credence to widespread notions that armed extremist militants in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) areas have pledged allegiance to Al-Bagdhadi’s jihadist ideology.