By PhilStar Global<\/p>\n
KUALA LUMPUR \u2013 The reported death of Islamic State (IS)\u2019s top leader in Southeast Asia is a major blow to the jihadists, but analysts warn it remains a potent threat, with battle-hardened fighters set to return from the Middle East.<\/p>\n
IS regional head Isnilon Hapilon was killed early yesterday during a military offensive to end the months-long siege of the city of Marawi, which has cost hundreds of lives.<\/p>\n
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 Hapilon to plot the takeover of the city.<\/p>\n
IS-supporting gunmen had overrun Marawi in May following a foiled attempt by security forces to arrest Hapilon.<\/p>\n
Hapilon, a key figure in kidnap-for-ransom outfit Abu Sayyaf, emerged as leader of IS in Southeast Asia in 2016 when a video appeared showing militants from the group urging extremists to unite under his leadership.<\/p>\n
Omar Maute was a leader of the Maute group, a ragtag outfit that emerged from a decades-old Muslim separatist rebellion in Mindanao. His group also pledged allegiance to IS and joined forces with Hapilon to overrun Marawi.<\/p>\n
Hapilon and Maute were the final two extremist leaders holding out against a military offensive to oust the militants from Marawi. Last month Abdullah Maute \u2013 another key leader of the Maute group and Omarkhayam’s brother \u2013 was killed in the fighting.<\/p>\n
Hapilon was key to IS\u2019s efforts to establish a base in Southeast Asia as the jihadists increasingly lose ground in the Middle East. His reported killing is undoubtedly a blow for the jihadists, analysts said.<\/p>\n
His death is \u201ca significant operational and symbolic blow to IS-linked groups in Mindanao and to ISIS Central in Syria as well,\u201d said Kumar Ramakrishna, a terrorism expert from Singapore\u2019s S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, using another name for the group.<\/p>\n
But he cautioned that it was far from the end of IS in the strife-torn southern Philippines or Southeast Asia.<\/p>\n
\u201cJust because the Marawi siege is coming to an end does not mean the threat is over. IS-linked militants there will regroup… and lay low for a while, while rebuilding their strength,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
He said a Malaysian militant involved in the Marawi siege, Mahmud Ahmad, would if he is still alive likely rise up to lead the IS-linked fighters in the southern Philippines and stay in contact with the jihadists in the Middle East.<\/p>\n
Mahmud Ahmad is reported to be a university lecturer in his home country who was in charge of raising finances from abroad for the jihadists and recruitment.<\/p>\n
It is not clear how many IS-supporting militants there are in Southeast Asia, a region of more than 600 million people, but many local militant outfits have pledged allegiance to the group.<\/p>\n
Hundreds of militants are believed to have flocked to the Middle East to fight with IS \u2013 particularly from Indonesia, which has the world\u2019s biggest Muslim population, and the Philippines.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By PhilStar Global KUALA LUMPUR \u2013 The reported death of Islamic State (IS)\u2019s top leader in Southeast Asia is a major blow to the jihadists, 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 killed early yesterday during a military offensive to end the months-long… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":71,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-905","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/eastasiaandoceaniablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/905","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/eastasiaandoceaniablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/eastasiaandoceaniablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/eastasiaandoceaniablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/71"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/eastasiaandoceaniablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=905"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/eastasiaandoceaniablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/905\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":906,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/eastasiaandoceaniablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/905\/revisions\/906"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/eastasiaandoceaniablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=905"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/eastasiaandoceaniablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=905"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/eastasiaandoceaniablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=905"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}