ISIS kills baby, nine Philippine militiamen in retaliatory attacks: Report
A commander was among the slain militiamen.
MANILA: A pro-Islamic State (ISIS) terror group killed a baby and nine Philippine government militiamen including a commander in suspected retaliatory attacks on the militia’s bases in the southern provinces of Cotabato and Maguindanao del Sur, it has been reported, confirming attack claims made in pro-ISIS channels.
The Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) commander and the baby were killed by Dawlah Islamiyah militants on Dec 7, Rappler reported, citing Abdulmalik Kalimpo a.k.a. Commander Robertson of the MILF’s 129th Base Operations Command.
Dawlah Islamiyah is the local and Arabic name for ISIS, the Middle Eastern terror group.
Kalimpo and Bangsamoro parliament member Akmad “Jack” Abas, head of the MILF’s Eastern Mindanao Command, said the Dawlah Islamiyah group also attacked the MILF on Dec. 8 and killed nine members of the Front’s Bangsamoro Islamic Armed Forces (BIAF) in Dalgan village, Pagalungan, Maguindanao del Sur.
Abas reportedly said Dawlah Islamiyah had blamed the MILF for the military’s offensives against the Islamic State-aligned group which started after a confirmation that the group was recruiting people in Sitio Wata in Pagalungan.
However, MILF members got in their way, sparking tension in the town, added Abas according to Rappler further.
“They killed the battalion commander of our 108th Base Command, whom they accused of being a government asset. They also killed a six-month-old baby girl and torched houses in the area,” the news site quoted Kalimpo as saying.
The MILF said government forces then launched more offensives just as the MILF-BIAF responded to Dawlah Islamiyah attacks.
Captain Alex Duma, spokesman of the Army’s 602nd Brigade, said the Dawlah Islamiyah attack on the MILF camp was to avenge the terrorist group’s loss during the first wave of government offensives.
The Philippine military had days earlier in their offensives killed three leaders of three separate pro-ISIS groups - the Abu Sayyaf Group, Maute Group and Hassan Group - along with some of their followers.
One of the three slain leaders was Abdullah Sapal a.k.a. Bro Sapal, the emir of the Hassan Group and overall leader of ISIS in the Philippines.
On Dec. 3, the Hassan Group carried out a bombing attack on a Catholic mass inside a gym at the Mindanao State University in Lanao del Sur province, believed to be in retaliation for the killing of the terror leaders and members.
Four days later, up to 10 members of Dawlah Islamiyah, later identified as Hassan Group members, were killed in a military assault near the Liguasan delta in Maguindanao del Sur.
The official report on the killing of the MILF militiamen and the baby came days after a pro-ISIS channel released a video purportedly featuring the capture and subsequent decapitation of an MILF troop alleged to have been a spy, according to a post on X.
ISIS militants also clashed with MILF troops in the Liguasan marsh in Maguindanao del Sur, said a US-based terrorism consultancy group, the Terrorism Research and Analysis Consortium, citing a pro-ISIS channel.