October 16, 2017

Isnilon Hapilon, known to security analysts as the leader of the militant Islamic State (IS) group in Southeast Asia, was killed in the battle to reclaim a rebel-held Philippines city, the defence minister said on Monday.

"(Our troops) were able to get Isnilon Hapilon and Omar Maute. They were both killed," Defence Secretary Delfin Lorenzana told reporters, referring to another fighter who led the attack with Hapilon on the southern Philippines city of Marawi city in May. IS has been trying to establish a caliphate in Southeast Asia as they suffer battlefield defeats in Iraq and Syria.

Hapilon is on the United States' list of "most wanted terrorists" and the US government had offered an $5 million bounty for information leading to Hapilon's arrest, describing the 51-year-old as a senior leader of the southern Philippines-based Abu Sayyaf group, which the US considers a "foreign terrorist organisation".

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https://www.dawn.com/news/1364191/philippine-troops-kill-is-leader-during-battle-to-reclaim-marawi