Foreign terrorists, local coddlers being tracked down

MAGUINDANAO , Philippines  – Authorities continued the hunt for foreign terrorists and their local coddlers who eluded government troops that raided their hideouts in Datu Salibo, Maguindanao last week.

Among those who reportedly escaped were Mauwiyah, also known as Hamoody Ali; Mohammad Ali bin Abdurahman; and Suhardono, reputedly of mixed Singaporean-Indonesian descent.

They were from the Maute group, now allied with the equally radical Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF).

Mauwiyah started as a member of the regional Jemaah Islamiyah terror group.

He mysteriously showed up in Maguindanao last year to help a radical BIFF faction train recruits in handling and fabrication of improvised explosive devices.

The military said intelligence units are tracking down Mauwiyah and his BIFF coddlers Salahudin Hassan, also known as “Commander Salah,” and companions Abdulmalik Esmael, Bashir Ungab, Nasser Adil and Ansari Yunos.

Hassan and his four companions were implicated in the deadly September 2016 bombing in Davao City that killed 15 and injured more than 50 others.

Local officials in Salibo and Datu Piang town said Mauwiyah and his BIFF protectors had escaped to the marshy border of Maguindanao and North Cotabato provinces on March 14, evading the two-day artillery attack by the military.

Brig. Gen. Ariel dela Vega, commander of Army’s 6th ID, said villagers and local officials in Maguindanao and North Cotabato are now helping the military locate the group.

Officials said more than 30 BIFF gunmen were killed in last week’s military offensives in Salibo.

Chief Supt. Reuben Theodore Sindac, regional police director for the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, said they would need the help of local officials in Maguindanao in building criminal cases against Commander Salah and his companions.

Sindac said the provincial police offices in Maguindanao and Lanao del Sur have intensified surveillance of the activities of the Dawlah Islamiya and the BIFF.

Army intelligence sources and local officials in Lanao del Sur and Maguindanao said the Maute group, also known as Dawlah Islamiya, and the BIFF lost no fewer than 50 men in encounters with government forces from December until last week.

“These terrorists have a penchant for attacking civilian targets when they retaliate,” Sindac said.