MARAWI CITY – Armed jihadists stormed a provincial jail late Friday and freed 8 local terrorists, including three women, who were recently captured transporting explosives in Lanao del Sur in the Muslim autonomous region in southern Philippines.
The raiders, believed to be members of the Khilafah Islamiya Movement, fled in several vehicles after the daring attack on the jail in Marawi City. One informant said as many as 7 vehicles with heavily-armed men stormed the jail and disarmed the guards.
More than a dozen other prisoners took advantage of the attack and also bolted jail near an army base. Jail officials were not immediate available to shed light on the escape of the prisoners.
Security forces captured the terrorists who are members of a jihadist group operating in Lanao del Sur tagged as behind the series of terrorism. Officials said army soldiers and policemen intercepted the group while transporting explosives in a van in the village of Nanagun in Lumbayanague town.
Troops seized from them two pipe bombs, two fragmentation grenades, one improvised explosive assembled from an 81mm mortar, two .45-caliber pistols and electronic triggering devices.
Officials said those arrested also gave out different names to mislead authorities, but army and police interrogators later found out that all those intercepted are members and relatives of Abdullah Maute, who founded the Dawlah Islamiya or “Islamic State” in southern Philippines.
Interrogation reports revealed the gang was plotting to bomb civilian targets in the volatile region, according to the military’s Western Mindanao Command.
Just recently, security forces killed 3 members of another jihadist group called Ansar Al-Khilafah Philippines (AKP) in Daliao village in nearby Sarangani’s Maasim town and troops recovered improvised explosives from the slain militants. Both the AKP and Maute group pledged allegiance with the Islamic State or Iraq and Syria and pledged to support each other in fighting the Philippine government. (Mindanao Examiner)
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