Bomb Expert Killed, 6 Militants Arrested in Southern Philippines, Officials Say

Philippine police shot and killed an alleged bomb expert of the militant Maute group that helped carry out last year’s siege in the southern city of Marawi, officials said Monday, as they announced the arrest of six other suspects.

A police officer, identified as Jerry Freo, was also wounded in a shootout that erupted after police raided the hideout of Najib Calimba Pundug (alias Najib Hussein) in the southern city of General Santos, said Superintendent Raul Supiter, the local police chief.

“Our target was killed,” Supiter told reporters, referring to Pundug. “We detained six of his relatives as we subjected them to further investigation about their possible links with militant group.”

Investigators recovered a black Islamic State (IS) flag, along with a handgun and a grenade, from the clash site, Supiter said.

Pundug was a ranking member of the Maute gang that helped local IS leader Isnilon Hapilon in carrying out the attack in Marawi last year, authorities said. The attack ended in October after five months of vicious firefights that killed 1,200 people, most of them militants.

Officials said Pundug was a known associate of Humam Abdul Najib (alias Abu Dar), who became the new regional leader of IS after security forces killed Hapilon, effectively ending the Marawi siege.

After President Rodrigo Duterte declared military rule on Mindanao island last year, Pundug was included in the military’s list of wanted people, officials said, adding that Pundug escaped with Abdul Najib as the troops closed in on Hapilon’s group in Marawi.

Supiter said that among those arrested Monday was Nafisa Pundug, Abu Dar’s wife. Nafisa and the slain militant were not related.

Born in Mindanao but studied at an Islamic school in the northern Philippines, Abu Dar was reported to have undergone explosives training in Afghanistan in 2005, military intelligence sources said.

Upon his return in 2012, Abu Dar founded the militant group Khilafa Islamiyyah Mindanao, which operated in areas near Marawi, officials said.

Mark Navales in Cotabato City contributed to this report.