Analyst: IS still a threat to region despite leader’s death

KUALA LUMPUR: The reported death of Islamic State’s top leader in South-East Asia is a major blow to the militants but analysts warn it remains a potent threat, with battle-hardened fighters set to return from the Middle East.

IS’ regional head Isnilon Hapilon was said to have been killed yesterday in the southern Philippines during a military offensive to end the siege of Marawi.

The military said the leader – who was on the US “most wanted terrorists” list – died in a dawn offensive alongside Omarkhayam Maute, who allied with Isnilon to plot the takeover of the city.

IS-supporting gunmen had overrun the predominantly Catholic country’s main Muslim city in May following a foiled attempt by security forces to arrest Isnilon.

Isnilon, a key figure in Philippine kidnap-for-ransom outfit Abu Sayyaf, emerged as leader of IS in South-East Asia in 2016 when a video appeared showing militants from the group urging extremists to unite under his leadership.

Omarkhayam was a leader of the Maute group, a ragtag outfit that emerged from a decades-old Muslim separatist rebellion on the southern island of Mindanao.

His group also pledged allegiance to IS and joined forces with Isnilon to overrun Marawi.

Isnilon and Omarkhayam were the final two militant leaders holding out against a military offensive to oust the extremists from Marawi. Last month Abdullah Maute – another key leader of the Maute group and Omarkhayam’s brother – was killed in fighting.

Isnilon was key to IS’s efforts to establish a base in South-East Asia as the extremists increasingly lose ground in the Middle East. His reported killing is undoubtedly a blow for the militants, analysts said.

His death is “a significant operational and symbolic blow to ISIS-linked groups in Mindanao and to ISIS Central in Syria as well”, said Kumar Ramakrishna, a terrorism expert from Singapore’s S. Rajarat­nam School of International Studies. — AFP