Joint government operatives killed a notorious leader of an armed group that had pledged support to the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) and arrested three of its members in an operation early Thursday in Kiamba town in Sarangani province.
Sr. Supt. Leonardo Suan, Police Regional Office-12’s deputy regional director for operations, said fugitive suspect Mohammad Jaafar Sabewang Maguid alias Tokboy was killed in an encounter at around 1 a.m. at the Angel Beach Resort in Barangay Kitagas, Kiamba.
Maguid is the founder and leader of the Ansar Al-Khilafah Philippines, which had been blamed over a string of terror attacks in Sarangani and the neighboring areas these past years.
“It’s confirmed. It was Tokboy,” Suan said in a radio interview.
He identified the arrested suspects as Matahata Dialawe Arboleda, Ismael Sahak alias Mael, and Morhaban Veloso alias Bugoy.
Recovered from the suspects were two baby or lite Armalite rifles and a hand grenade.
The police official said they launched the operation after an informant tipped them of the group’s presence at the resort.
Read the full story at Tankler