Recent Appearances...

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Recent Appearances...

Southeast Asia

Too good to be true? Unpacking Jemaah Islamiyah’s self-declared disbanding

2024-09-08

2024.07.10
[BenarNews] At an event organized last month by the Indonesian counter-terrorism agency (BNPT), Abu Rusydan and 15 other leaders of Jemaah Islamiyah announced their group’s dissolution.

JI, the Southeast Asian affiliate of al-Qaeda, had carried out a string of devastating attacks in the 2000s, including Indonesia’s deadliest-ever terror attack — the 2002 Bali bombings. But now it was "ready to actively contribute to Indonesia’s progress and dignity," Abu Rusydan declared as he read from a prepared statement during the event on June 30.

This is not the first time that a bully boy group has disbanded itself. The Provisional Irish Republican Army unilaterally broke up in 2005, throwing itself solely into legal activities through its political arm, Sinn Féin. In 2018, the Basque separatist organization ETA also unilaterally disbanded.

But Jemaah Islamiyah’s announcement surprised many people, and left others feeling skeptical.

There are three interrelated questions that need to be asked about the move by JI: How did we get here? Is this for real? And what does this mean for regional security?

HOW DID WE GET HERE?
Jemaah Islamiyah, which has its roots in the Darul Islam movement, was founded in Malaysia in 1993, when its two founders, Abdullah Sungkar and

Abu Bakar Bashir
... Leader of the Indonesian Mujahedeen Council and proprietor of the al-Mukmin madrassah in Ngruki. The spriritual head of Jemaah Islamiya, which he denies exists. Bashir was jugged and then released in the wake of the 2002 Bali bombings, which he blamed on a conspiracy among the U.S., Israel, and Australia. In 2014, as leader of Jemaah Ansharut Daulah (JAD), he pledged allegiance to ISIS. Currently in jug...
, were on the run from Suharto’s New Order government in Indonesia.

While in Malaysia, they served as a way-station for several hundred gunnies who traveled to Pakistain to join the anti-Soviet jihad in Afghanistan, putting them in direct contact with al-Qaeda.

In 1996, a charter (the PUPJI) created the group’s organizational structure and codified JI’s Salafi ideology. At the time, the group also reached an agreement with the Philippine armed separatist organization, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, to allow al-Qaeda to establish training camps in the southern Philippines.

In Indonesia, JI perpetrated terrorist attacks on Christian churches and established two paramilitary organizations to wage sectarian conflict in the Maluku Islands and Central Sulawesi province.

Following the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan in October 2001, the al-Qaeda leadership called for diversionary attacks. One of these was the twin Bali bombings that killed 202 people a year later.

Between 2002 and 2007, JI perpetrated a major attack almost every year. But each attack left the organization weaker as counterterrorism forces became more adept and better resourced.

This led to an ideological split in the organization between proponents of the line of targeting the "far enemy," versus those who wanted to foment sectarian conflict in order to rebuild their depleted ranks.

The government legally banned JI in 2008, but allowed it to operate as an entity as long as it refrained from violence.

In 2010, more than 100 JI members were swept up, including Abu Bakar Bashir, breaking the organization’s back. JI’s last terrorist act took place that year.

Yet, from 2020-2023, Indonesian counter-terrorism efforts were as focused on JI as it was on the pro-Islamic State

...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that they were al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're really very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear western pols talk they're not really Moslems....
umbrella group, Jamaah Ansharut Daulah (JAD). Security forces originally saw JI as an off-ramp for the more radical JAD, but attitudes hardened.

In 2019, when counterterrorism police arrested JI’s emir, Para Wijayanto, they were shocked by the group’s size and national reach. Its madrassas and charitable arms had grown, while its corporations and publishing arms had created a steady revenue stream. As many JI members were arrested in 2021 and 2022 as JAD suspects.

Indonesian counter-terrorism forces have applied a softer approach. Though seemingly campy, they’ve held mass rallies where former gunnies pledge allegiance to the republic.

Former gunnies have established madrassas for the children of incarcerated bully boys, so they are not raised in JI or JAD-run schools, breaking terrorist social networks.

They’ve gotten leaders, including the JAD Emir Aman Abdurrahman, who is on death row, and Umar Patek, to publicly renounce violence.

Meanwhile the conflict in Poso, which served as a rallying point for all bully boy groups in Indonesia, has been stamped out.

Internationally, there has been more cooperation amongst the regional security services. And while ungoverned space and institutional weakness remains in the southern Philippines, bully boy groups are no longer attracting JI and other foreign bully boys.

The Moro Islamic Liberation Front continues to implement the grinding of the peace processor and build up institutions that will help the autonomous Moslem region transition to self-governance. There has been an unprecedented sustained attack on the Abu Sayyaf
...also known as al-Harakat al-Islamiyya, an Islamist terror group based in Jolo, Basilan and Zamboanga. Since its inception in the early 1990s, the group has carried out bombings, kidnappings, murders, head choppings, and extortion in their uniquely Islamic attempt to set up an independent Moslem province in the Philippines. Abu Sayyaf forces probably number less than 300 cadres. The group is closely allied with remnants of Indonesia's Jemaah Islamiya and has loose ties with MILF and MNLF who sometimes provide cannon fodder...
, which is now fighting for survival.

IS THIS FOR REAL?
While JI has not been in a position to engage in terrorism, until now, it has never renounced violence. Many in the organization were simply waiting for the right circumstance to resume operations.

It’s easy to be cynical about the group’s prepared statement, especially at an event stage-managed by the BNPT. Some of those who were on hand had been arrested and gone through government disengagement programs.

To young radicals, they’re sell-outs, and past their prime. The average age of the men who renounced violence was in the late 50s or older.

To what degree will younger members follow the leadership and pursue a legal-political alternative?

In many ways, this is more promising. JI’s campaign of militancy failed to bring about the establishment of an Islamic State governed by Sharia. Democratic politics have advanced their political agenda more effectively.

It’s not that Islamist parties do terribly well at the national level. Indeed, in Indonesia’s 2024 general election, they collectively represented about 20% of the electorate and won 101 of 580 seats. But they are important members of political coalitions, which tend to give them a disproportionate voice.

It’s at the local level where we see faith-based parties make their mark, especially in the passage of public policy and Sharia compliant codes, which the majority of provinces and districts now have.

Islamist parties are riddled with rivalries and have never formed a cohesive bloc.

Perhaps for that reason, JI saw an opening for a tactical shift. In May 2021, JI established the Indonesian People’s Dakwah Party (PDRI). Yet, counter-terrorism forces arrested its founder, Farid Ahmad Okbah, that November for being a senior member of JI. Two others were arrested.

The PDRI did not contest the 2024 elections. But it seems likely that with JI’s dissolution, the government will give former members more political space.

WHAT DOES THIS MEAN FOR REGIONAL SECURITY?
JI’s manpower and locus were largely-Indonesian based, but it remains a Southeast Asian organization.

Some affiliates gravitated elsewhere. Darul Islam Sabah, for example, went from facilitating JI and the movement of foreign gunnies in and out of the southern Philippines to working with the JAD and other groups.

There has always been more fluidity between Southeast Asian bully boy groups than those in the Middle East or South Asia. Abu Bakar Bashir defected from being pro-al Qaeda to being pro-Islamic State, with large numbers of acolytes, without consequence.

As such, many younger gunnies who are committed to using violence to achieve their political aims are likely to defect to other groups.

What those groups may be, though, is unclear. The JAD is decimated and leaderless, though to be fair, it was always far more horizontally structured. It has not executed a major terrorist attack since 2019.

At present there is no apparent charismatic leader for bully boy Salafists
...Salafists are ostentatiously devout Moslems who figure the ostentation of their piety gives them the right to tell others how to do it and to kill those who don't listen to them...
to coalesce around. And while one would expect external events, such as the war in Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with an iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response...
, to serve as a catalyst, to date it has not.

JI still runs a network of madrassas, including some very large ones like al-Mukmin and Pesantren Hidayatullah in Balikpapan. These continue to be ideological incubators and hate factories.

It’s hard to see state educational personnel intervene and change their curriculum. But Indonesian security forces have not let up, despite the decline in organizational strength or the tempo of operations.

Terrorism will be a persistent but manageable threat in Indonesia. JI’s dissolution makes it more so, providing a legal-political alternative that is more moral, but also proven to be more effective.

Zachary Abuza is a professor at the National War College in Washington and an adjunct at Georgetown University. The views expressed here are his own and do not reflect the position of the U.S. Department of Defense, the National War College, Georgetown University or BenarNews.

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Southeast Asia

Philippine govt soldiers kill 8 suspected Islamic State-linked militants in Mindanao firefight

2024-01-28

[BenarNews] Eight suspected Filipino snuffies belonging to a local group allied with Islamic State

That would be the attack on Mindanao State University.

According to military officials, the Filipino snuffies were apparently acting under the instructions of the Islamic State, which had earlier owned up to the attack.

"During the military operations the troops killed eight enemies," Brig. Gen. Yegor Rey Baroquillo Jr., commander of the 103rd, told BenarNews. After the firefight, troops retrieved the bodies of the slain bad boys, he said.

Baroquillo said four members of the Scout Rangers, who were maimed in the fighting, were brought to a local hospital. He did not divulge the extent of their wounds.

He said the troops were after the Marawi bombers and that search operations were focused on three Lanao towns believed to be strongholds of the DI-Maute: Pantao Ragat, Poona PIagapo and Munai.

Brig. Gen. Anthon Abrina, commander of the 2nd Mechanized Infantry Brigade, told BenarNews in a phone interview that "we are on heightened, red alert status following the encounter Thursday evening."

Troop reinforcements have been brought in and several checkpoints were established along the national highway leading to the areas "to ensure the safety of civilians in their respective communities," Abrina said.

The towns in Lanao are near the city of Marawi, where the bombing took place.

Military chief Gen. Romeo Brawner Jr. has blamed the DI-Maute group for the bombing, saying it was carried out as Dire Revenge for a military operation elsewhere in the south that left over a dozen snuffies killed.

Two of those killed were identified as Mundi Sawadjaan and Jalandoni Lucsadato. Sawadjaan has been identified as a sub-leader of the Abu Sayyaf
...also known as al-Harakat al-Islamiyya, an Islamist terror group based in Jolo, Basilan and Zamboanga. Since its inception in the early 1990s, the group has carried out bombings, kidnappings, murders, head choppings, and extortion in their uniquely Islamic attempt to set up an independent Moslem province in the Philippines. Abu Sayyaf forces probably number less than 300 cadres. The group is closely allied with remnants of Indonesia's Jemaah Islamiya and has loose ties with MILF and MNLF who sometimes provide cannon fodder...
, another Islamic State-linked group in the southern Philippines.

He was also the nephew of the late Hatib Hajan Sawadjaan, who was thought to be the group’s leader before he was killed in 2020. The elder Sawadjaan at one time was also named as the IS leader for the Philippines.

Hatib Hajan Sawadjaan also criminal masterminded a January 2019 bombing at a Catholic church on southern Jolo island that killed 23 people including an Indonesian couple blamed for the suicide kaboom, according to Philippine authorities.

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Southeast Asia

Teenage Abu Sayyaf militant surrenders in southern Philippines, military says

2023-06-22

[BenarNews] A 13-year-old Egyptian member of the Abu Sayyaf
...also known as al-Harakat al-Islamiyya, an Islamist terror group based in Jolo, Basilan and Zamboanga. Since its inception in the early 1990s, the group has carried out bombings, kidnappings, murders, head choppings, and extortion in their uniquely Islamic attempt to set up an independent Moslem province in the Philippines. Abu Sayyaf forces probably number less than 300 cadres. The group is closely allied with remnants of Indonesia's Jemaah Islamiya and has loose ties with MILF and MNLF who sometimes provide cannon fodder...
bad boy group and a sub-leader of the outfit have surrendered to the military in the southern Philippines, the military said Friday. The teenager gave himself up to troops this week in Indanan, a town in the island province of Sulu, officials said. He joined the bad boy group when he was 10, and blamed his mother, a jacket wallah who died in a kaboom in Indanan in 2019, for his introduction into militancy, he told the military. The boy was with the sub-leader who was identified by an alias, as Ellam, 26. The duo turned over two M-16 rifles, a magazine and 20 ammunition during their surrender.

"He is the last juvenile foreign terrorist," the military said in a statement, referring to the teenager.

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Southeast Asia

Philippine army rescues teen son of Indonesian suicide bombers

2023-06-07

[BenarNews] The Philippine military said Tuesday it had rescued the teenaged son of an Indonesian couple who blew themselves up in a 2019 suicide kaboom that killed 21 people at a Catholic cathedral in the south.

Ahmad Ibrahim Rullie, 15, was rescued nearly two years after his younger sister was recovered from Abu Sayyaf
...also known as al-Harakat al-Islamiyya, an Islamist terror group based in Jolo, Basilan and Zamboanga. Since its inception in the early 1990s, the group has carried out bombings, kidnappings, murders, head choppings, and extortion in their uniquely Islamic attempt to set up an independent Moslem province in the Philippines. Abu Sayyaf forces probably number less than 300 cadres. The group is closely allied with remnants of Indonesia's Jemaah Islamiya and has loose ties with MILF and MNLF who sometimes provide cannon fodder...
gunnies during a military operation on the same southern island of Jolo.

The military’s Western Mindanao Command (Wesmincom) said it found the boy on Saturday in the town of Sumisipa after launching an operation to arrest two leaders of an Islamic State

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Southeast Asia

Suspected Abu Sayyaf attack injures paramilitary officer, 3 civilians in southern Philippines

2023-01-10

[BenarNews] Gunmen allegedly linked to the Abu Sayyaf
...also known as al-Harakat al-Islamiyya, an Islamist terror group based in Jolo, Basilan and Zamboanga. Since its inception in the early 1990s, the group has carried out bombings, kidnappings, murders, head choppings, and extortion in their uniquely Islamic attempt to set up an independent Moslem province in the Philippines. Abu Sayyaf forces probably number less than 300 cadres. The group is closely allied with remnants of Indonesia's Jemaah Islamiya and has loose ties with MILF and MNLF who sometimes provide cannon fodder...

The overall strength of the Abu Sayyaf Group was believed to have fallen to 130 active fighters in ASG’s strongholds on the southern islands of Basilan and Jolo, the military said last November.

Group (ASG) injured a paramilitary officer and three civilians during a Sunday night attack on an army detachment on the southern island of Basilan
...Basilan is a rugged, jungle-covered island in the southern Philippines. It is a known stronghold of the Abu Sayyaf, bandidos, and maybe even orcs. Most people with any sense travel with armed escorts...
, police and military officials said.

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Southeast Asia

Philippine soldier, 5 suspected Islamic State militants killed in clash

2022-04-30

[BenarNews] Five suspected pro-Islamic State

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Southeast Asia

Troops kill senior Abu Sayyaf leader in southern Philippines

2022-03-27

[BenarNews] Troops killed a top-ranking Abu Sayyaf
...also known as al-Harakat al-Islamiyya, an Islamist terror group based in Jolo, Basilan and Zamboanga. Since its inception in the early 1990s, the group has carried out bombings, kidnappings, murders, head choppings, and extortion in their uniquely Islamic attempt to set up an independent Moslem province in the Philippines. Abu Sayyaf forces probably number less than 300 cadres. The group is closely allied with remnants of Indonesia's Jemaah Islamiya and has loose ties with MILF and MNLF who sometimes provide cannon fodder...

Radzmil Jannatul (also known as Khubayb), was killed in a clash with members of the elite Scout Rangers in the village of Baiwas on Friday afternoon.

Group leader during a shootout on the southern Philippine island of Basilan
...Basilan is a rugged, jungle-covered island in the southern Philippines. It is a known stronghold of the Abu Sayyaf, bandidos, and maybe even orcs. Most people with any sense travel with armed escorts...
, the military said Saturday.

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Southeast Asia

Abu Sayyaf Militant Accused of Beheadings Killed in Southern Philippines

2021-06-14

[BenarNews] A nephew of the Islamic State

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Southeast Asia

Philippines Military Reports Killing 3 Abu Sayyaf Suspects

2021-04-25

[BenarNews] Two brothers of an Abu Sayyaf
...also known as al-Harakat al-Islamiyya, an Islamist terror group based in Jolo, Basilan and Zamboanga. Since its inception in the early 1990s, the group has carried out bombings, kidnappings, murders, head choppings, and extortion in their uniquely Islamic attempt to set up an independent Moslem province in the Philippines. Abu Sayyaf forces probably number less than 300 cadres. The group is closely allied with remnants of Indonesia's Jemaah Islamiya and has loose ties with MILF and MNLF who sometimes provide cannon fodder...
commander were apparently killed Friday along with another krazed killer during festivities in Sulu province in the far southern Philippines, ground commanders said.

The siblings were nephews of Hatib Hajan Sawadjaan, the presumed late leader of the Islamic State

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Iraq

Iraqi forces eliminate ISIS governor and scores of terrorist in successful operation: photos

2020-12-14

It’s time to get serious — the Americans and the rest of the Coalition will be gone soon.

[ALMASDARNEWS] On Sunday, the Iraqi army confirmed the killing of 42 forces of Evil from the Islamic State

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Southeast Asia

Philippine Military Kills 7 Suspected Dawlah Islamiyah Militants in 2 Southern Raids

2020-11-23

13 November
[BenarNews] Six Filipinos believed to be members of a local Islamic State

...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that they were al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're really very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear western pols talk they're not really Moslems....
branch were killed Friday in a gunbattle with government forces in the southern Philippines, while a seventh suspected bad boy died in another raid in the region, military officials said.

Arafat Bulacon (alias Maula) a top lieutenant of Dawlah Islamiyah — the Filipino term for Islamic State (IS) — was among the six suspects slain during the raid in Polomolok, a town in South Cotabato province, authorities said.

He was among those wanted for a 2018 kaboom in General Santos city that injured eight people, they said. Earlier this month, troops killed a bad boy identified as Bulacon’s accomplice, Jazzer Nilong, in the nearby town of Esperanza.

"Two arrest warrants for murder (were) issued against the suspect at 5 in the morning," said Maj. Gen. Juvymax Uy, commander of the military’s Joint Task Force Central. "However,
if you can't say something nice about a person some juicy gossip will go well...
Bulacon and five other cohorts tried to evade the arrest and engaged the troops in a shootout, which resulted in their instantaneous death."

He said troops recovered an M4 rifle, two 12-gauge shotguns, two .38-caliber revolvers, an AR-15 pistol, an improvised bomb and an IS flag.

Security Forces Kill Islamic State Suspect, Foil Bomb Plot
5 November
[BenarNews] Police and soldiers killed a suspected sub-leader of Islamic State’s Philippine branch and foiled a bomb plot during a joint counter-terrorist operation in southern Sultan Kudarat province, the military said Thursday.

Combined forces from the provincial police, the army’s 7th Infantry Battalion and 43rd Special Action Company moved in to arrest the suspect, Jazzer Nilong (alias Khalid Di Nilong), at an inn in the municipality of Esperanza on Wednesday, according to the military chief in the south.

"But he sensed the presence of troops conducting surveillance, dug in and engaged the officers in a gunbattle," Lt. Gen. Corleto Vinluan, head of the military’s Western Mindanao Command, told BenarNews. "He was killed in the brief firefight."

Nilong’s death came a day after Philippine government forces killed seven suspected members of a pro-Islamic State (IS) bad boy group, Abu Sayyaf
...also known as al-Harakat al-Islamiyya, an Islamist terror group based in Jolo, Basilan and Zamboanga. Since its inception in the early 1990s, the group has carried out bombings, kidnappings, murders, head choppings, and extortion in their uniquely Islamic attempt to set up an independent Moslem province in the Philippines. Abu Sayyaf forces probably number less than 300 cadres. The group is closely allied with remnants of Indonesia's Jemaah Islamiya and has loose ties with MILF and MNLF who sometimes provide cannon fodder...
, in a high-seas shootout off the far southern Sulu Islands.

Nilong led a cell of the bad boy group Dawlah Islamiyah, which carried out a bombing in southern General Santos City that maimed eight in 2018, officials said.

Dawlah Islamiyah, which translates to Islamic State (IS), operates in the southern Philippines. Its members are known to work with forces of Evil belonging to the Ansar al-Khilafah Philippines (AKP), another bad boy group whose members are wanted for a string of attacks in the south.

After Wednesday’s gunbattle, police recovered an automatic handgun, a 60-mm unused mortar round, a rifle grenade, electric blasting caps, batteries and materials typically used by southern Philippine forces of Evil to make improvised bombs. Investigators also found documents indicating that Nilong was planning to carry out attacks in the south, Vinluan said.

The dead man’s brothers — Jeoffrey and Amen Nilong, who were identified as bomb makers — were killed in a military and police raid in the southern town of Isulan in September, he said.

SEA CLASH
On Tuesday, government forces killed seven Abu Sayyaf Group forces of Evil when a firefight broke out as they chased the suspects’ speedboat in waters off the Sulu archipelago, the military said.

The slain suspects included Mannul Sawadjaan (alias Abu Amara), believed to be the successor to his grandfather, Hatib Hajan Sawadjaan, the overall IS leader in the country who, authorities have said, may have been killed in a previous encounter with troops.

The military has not officially confirmed the death of Hatib Sawadjaan, who took the reins of IS after Isnilon Hapilon was killed at the end of a five-month siege of the southern Marawi city by pro-IS forces of Evil in 2017.

On Thursday, armed forces chief Gen. Gilbert Gapay expressed confidence that the forces of Evil would soon be defeated.

"The efficient use of our assets brings about significant gains in our fight against enemies of the state," Gapay said. "This proves that armed with high level weaponry and equipment, our skilled soldiers can render these ~~bandidos~~ Death Eaters defenseless."

He said that since November 2019, 65 Abu Sayyaf members had been killed while 99 others had surrendered.

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Southeast Asia

Philippine Military Kills 2 Abu Sayyaf Suspects in Sulu Gunbattles, 17 in November

2020-11-23

20 November
[BenarNews] Philippine government forces killed two suspected Abu Sayyaf
...also known as al-Harakat al-Islamiyya, an Islamist terror group based in Jolo, Basilan and Zamboanga. Since its inception in the early 1990s, the group has carried out bombings, kidnappings, murders, head choppings, and extortion in their uniquely Islamic attempt to set up an independent Moslem province in the Philippines. Abu Sayyaf forces probably number less than 300 cadres. The group is closely allied with remnants of Indonesia's Jemaah Islamiya and has loose ties with MILF and MNLF who sometimes provide cannon fodder...
Group Death Eaters in separate incidents in the southern Sulu Islands on Friday, including a unit sub-leader and one linked to kidnappings of Europeans and an Indonesian several years ago, military officials said.

The killings brought to 17 the number of suspected members of Islamic State

More Abu Sayyaf adventures:

13 November
[BenarNews] Military officials reported that a suspected Abu Sayyaf bad boy was killed Friday during a raid of a hideout in Basilan province, according to the state-run Philippine News Agency (PNA).

The suspect, identified as Hasid Salajim, was killed during the 5:30 a.m. raid, Lt. Gen. Corleto Vinluan of the Western Mindanao Command in Zamboanga told PNA.

Apart from the bombing attack in General Santos, Bulacon was wanted for crimes in South Cotabato, a mostly agricultural province in Mindanao Island where forces of Evil have been recruiting and training fighters over the past several years, Uy said.

"Terrorists have no place here in South-Central Mindanao, so it might be better for you to surrender to the government," Uy said. "This successful operation can be notably credited to the strong cooperation of communities who are tired of this cycle of violence."

ABU SAYYAF SUB-COMMANDER CAUGHT
On Thursday, a mid-level Abu Sayyaf Group leader was captured in a mountainous area in Patikul, a town in the far southern Sulu Islands. Amah Ullah, an ASG sub-leader, was taken into custody after being injured in a clash with troops, who were searching for several Indonesians being held hostage by members of the IS-linked bad boy group, authorities said.

Ullah, who was treated at a military hospital in Jolo town, was to be questioned.

"According to the troops, Ullah refused to surrender and wanted to be killed, but the soldiers instead provided him with first aid," Vinluan said.

The operations came shortly after the military killed seven members of a pro-IS faction of the Abu Sayyaf, including a bad boy being groomed to be its new leader, during a high-seas chase off Sulu province on Nov. 3.

And from 9 November:

[BenarNews] A suspected Abu Sayyaf militant, who was wanted for involvement in the 2016 abduction of six Indonesian fishing crew members, died in a shootout with government forces in southern Zamboanga Sibugay province over the weekend, Philippine police said Monday.

Members of the police’s Special Action Force killed the suspect, Salip Adzhar Alijam, when he opened fire during a raid in Tungawan town on Saturday, regional police director Brig. Gen. Jesus Cambay told BenarNews.

"The suspect fired at the approaching police forces, which triggered a brief shootout that resulted in his death," Cambay said.

The security forces’ operation was based on a warrant issued against Aijam for illegal possession of explosives. He was also known by the aliases Aya and Alip Adjal Hamsa Grandad.

A sidearm and other weapons, including a fragmentation grenade and ammunition, were recovered from the slain suspect.

Cambay said Alijam was a bad boy from the Abu Sayyaf faction led by Alhabsy Misaya, whose group was behind cross-border raids and kidnappings in nearby Malaysian waters. Misaya was slain in a clash with troops three years ago.

One of the six Indonesian captives, Herman bin Manggak, had positively identified Alijam as being among the Abu Sayyaf men who kidnapped them in August 2016 in waters in Sabah, a state in Malaysian Borneo. The kidnappers took the captives to the Sulu archipelago, a stronghold of the gunnies in the far southern Philippines.

The Indonesians were among a dozen hostages kidnapped by Abu Sayyaf in 2015 and 2016. Three westerners — Canadians Robert Hall and John Ridsdel and Norwegian Kjartan Sekkingstad — were also held hostage, along with a Filipino woman.

Sekkingstad and the woman were later freed separately after reportedly paying an undisclosed amount of ransom, but Hall and Ridsdel had their heads chopped off by the kidnappers after their relatives refused to pay the ransom.

Manggak and the other Indonesians were either released or escaped.

The waters that separate the southern Philippines from next-door neighbors Malaysia and Indonesia have been notorious for kidnappings carried out at sea by Abu Sayyaf bad boys.

The last such case was the Jan. 16 abduction of five Indonesians in waters off an island in Sabah. An Abu Sayyaf faction is currently holding four of them captive, while a fifth Indonesian, identified as La Baa, was slain in September by his captors.

On Sept. 30, three suspected Abu Sayyaf members, including one involved in the abduction of the fishermen, surrendered to government troops in Sulu.

Since 2016, at least 54 Indonesian nationals have been targeted in 16 maritime kidnappings, including in Sabah waters, an official at the Indonesia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said earlier this year.

In 2017, the Philippines, Malaysia and Indonesian launched trilateral patrols aimed at preventing acts of piracy and kidnappings at sea along their common maritime boundaries.

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