Four M'sian militants still fighting in Marawi: IGP
Published on: Tuesday, October 03, 2017
Kota Kinabalu: Police believe four Malaysian militants remain holed up in embattled Marawi City in southern Philippines, Inspector-General of Police Datuk Seri Mohamad Fuzi Harun said.He said the four were Mahmud Ahmad, Mohd Amin Baco, Jeknal Adil and another nicknamed "Pendek".Sabahan Jeknal Adil was earlier believed to have been killed during an ambush in June by security forces.
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Jeknal's death was detailed by IS propaganda magazine Rumiyah in June. It had claimed he had been hit by military shelling while preparing breakfast for members of his camp."Until now, Jeknal's death has not yet been confirmed by the Philippine authorities, so we consider him still alive," Fuzi said.Another Malaysian, Muhammad Joraimee Awang Raimee, was said to have been killed on Thursday.Joraimee, 42, a former officer of the Selayang Municipal Council, was supposed to have died in aerial bombing as troops regained Bato Mosque, which the militants had used as their command centre in Marawi.
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"We have also received this information. But this has yet to be confirmed by the authorities in Marawi. We are still awaiting confirmation," Fuzi said.
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The presence of at least three Malaysian fighters was confirmed by a former hostage held by the militants in Marawi.He said he had met the three during his captivity, including possibly Joraimee, before his "death".The Filipino teacher, Lordvin Acopio, escaped during a heavy offensive by the military on Sept 16 after being held captive for nearly four months.Acopio said the Malaysians he met were Mahmud, an "Abu Muslim", which was definitely an alias, and a third whose name he did not know.When asked if any of the three Malaysians he saw carried a kris or dagger, Acopio said: "Yes, I think I saw him. It was the one whose name I did not know," he said.Sources said Joraimee liked to pose with a shotgun and kris in photos and videos shot by the militants.Fuzi, when asked about Abu Muslim, said police had not heard of such an alias used by any of the Malaysians.Amin and Jeknal were reported to be from Sabah's east coast district of Tawau and members of the outlawed group Darul Islam Sabah.The two Sabahans, along with Mahmud, Joraimee and bomb maker Mohd Najib Husen, were announced by police in July 2014 as among suspected Malaysian militants linked to the IS and Abu Sayyaf groups.Jeknal, 33, was reported to be a hardcore militant, having been involved in terrorism since he was 18 and had reportedly undergone at least five jihad-related physical training sessions in Tawau.Jeknal was also said to have taken part in military training in an Abu Sayyaf camp on Jolo island between September 2005 and March 2006.Both he and Amin were identified as bomb-makers who used the Abu Sayyaf hideouts in Basilan and Jolo islands as a base for IS operatives in Southeast Asia.Mahmud, also known as Abu Handzalah, was said to have assumed a leadership role among the Maute and Abu Sayyaf, who have been fighting security forces in clashes in Marawi City.Mahmud and his right-hand man, Najib, who was killed in Basilan, southern Philippines, were identified as the chief recruiters in Malaysia for IS.Mahmud was also responsible for training and sending militants to fight in Syria and Iraq.Among those he had recruited was Malaysia's first suicide bomber, Ahmad Tarmimi Maliki.Mahmud himself had received training at an al-Qaeda camp in Afghanistan under Osama bin Laden while studying at Pakistan's Islamabad Islamic University in the late 1990s.He returned to Malaysia to lecture at Universiti Malaya. When he was exposed as a militant by Malaysian police in 2014, he fled to the southern Philippines.Mahmud was responsible for financing the Marawi attack by arranging for a multi-million peso transfer from IS.Mahmud played the role of ustaz (religious teacher) to the hostages and was responsible for assigning female hostages to serve as nurses to injured fighters.Mahmud and Joraimee were described as strategists of the Marawi attack which began on May 23.Stay up-to-date by following Daily Express’s Telegram channel.
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