Philippine Offensive Wounds Top Terror Suspect

Local Editor

Philippine troops launched airstrikes and ground assaults that reportedly wounded one of Southeast Asia's most-wanted terror suspects who is trying to establish a new base for an alliance backing Daesh [Arabic acronym for "ISIS" / "ISIL"], officials said Friday.

Intelligence reports showed initial assaults killed at least four militants, possibly including a Malaysian, and reportedly wounded the main target, Isnilon Hapilon, Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana told The Associated Press.

He said that Hapilon apparently managed to flee from an encampment in the mountainous hinterlands of Butig town in southern Lanao del Sur province.

"Army troops are still in hot pursuit," Lorenzana said.

Airstrikes targeted Hapilon's group Wednesday and Thursday. Hundreds of troops, backed by artillery fire, then began pursuing him and other militants from the so-called Maute group in Butig, military chief of staff Gen. Eduardo Ano said.

Hapilon, who is on the US Department of Justice list of most-wanted terrorists worldwide with up to $5 million bounty for his capture, moved to Butig from his stronghold on southern Basilan island a month ago to look for a base for his new militant alliance, Ano told The AP.

Lanao lies about 830 kilometers [520 miles] south of Manila.

President Rodrigo Duterte had repeatedly warned that the emergence of Daesh-influenced militant groups was fast looming as a major national security threat. While pursuing peace talks with two large Takfiri extremist groups, he has ordered the military to destroy smaller but brutal extremist groups like the Abu Sayyaf, which is dreaded for cross-border kidnappings, beheadings and bombings.

A wave of Abu Sayyaf kidnappings of crewmen, mostly from Indonesia and Malaysia, sparked a regional security alarm.

Hapilon, an Arabic-speaking extremist preacher known for his expertise on commando assaults, had been indicted in the District of Columbia for his role in terrorist acts against Americans and other foreigners in the southern Philippines.

The elusive Abu Sayyaf commander pledged allegiance to Daesh in 2014.

He then went on to organize an alliance called Dawlatul Islam Wilayatul Mashriq, which is now believed to include at least 10 small militant groups, including some Abu Sayyaf factions, the Maute and two other groups established by Malaysian and Indonesian militants. They all use black Daesh flags, according to counterterrorism officials and documents.

The Maute and another group under the alliance of Ansar Al Khilafa Philippines had been linked to a Sept. 2 bombing of a night market that killed 15 people and wounded 69 others in southern Davao city, the president's hometown, and a failed bombing in Manila's popular Rizal Park and the US Embassy last year.

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team