Eight suspected members of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) were killed in a firefight with government troops in Maguing, Lanao del Sur, the military said a day after confirming that a leader of the terrorist Maute Group had taken over as the new commander of ISIS-Southeast Asia.
The encounter happened on March 1 and 2 at an ISIS camp, near a camp of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front. The military had been carrying out operations in the area for the past three days.
One soldier was killed while five others were wounded in the clash. It is unclear whether ISIS regional leader Abu Zacariah was among those killed in the firefight.
Authorities recovered 40 high-caliber guns and explosives following the encounter. They also found 7 kilos of suspected shabu and 1 kilo of marijuana in a house occupied by IS members belonging to the former mayor of Kauswagan town, the military said.
Zacariah has standing arrest warrants for kidnapping, arson, murder and frustrated murder, said Brig. Gen. Jose Maria Cuerpo II, commander of the Army’s 103rd Brigade.
“We received information that Abu Zacariah had been designated as emir of ISIS Southeast Asia. We have evidence on that,” he said, adding “he was among those who joined the Marawi siege but got out during the early stage of the fighting.”
The Maute group laid siege on Marawi City in May 2017 which lasted five months that claimed the lives of 168 soldiers and policemen, 47 civilians and 1,000 terrorists including then ISIS-Southeast Asia emir Isnilon Hapilon.
Zacariah was among at least 60 terrorists inside the camp of the Maute Group that was assaulted by government troops and military bomber planes in Maguing town in Lanao del Sur Tuesday this week.
Authorities said they received reports that Zacariah was planning atrocities during the Ramadan next month and during the national elections in May, Cuerpo said.