8 more Dawlah Islamiya members surrender in Lanao del Sur
LANAO DEL SUR, Philippines — Eight members of ISIS-inspired Dawlah Islamiya surrendered in Balindong town Saturday and pledged allegiance to the government.
Brig. Gen. Jose Maria Cuerpo, commander of the 103rd Infantry Brigade, said Sunday the eight men also turned in firearms and components for improvised explosive devices.
Cuerpo said the group yielded through the efforts of the Army’s 82nd Infantry Battalion and local officials.
In a report to Cuerpo, Lt. Col. Rafman Altre of the 82nd IB said the eight Maranao men were recruited into the Dawlah Islamiya by a radical cleric named Iman Dimacaling.
The outlawed Dawlah Islamiya is operating in the fashion of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria.
The Dawlah Islamiya block in Lanao del Sur began as the Maute terror group, led by brothers Omarkhayam and Abdullah Maute, who led the siege of more than a dozen barangays in the provincial capital, Marawi City, on May 23, 2017, sparking a conflict that lasted until October 16 in the same year.
The Maute siblings both perished in encounters then with state security forces.
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