Cops hunt elusive target of Marawi anti-terror operation

COTABATO CITY, Philippines — The target of the police operation in Marawi City on Saturday, August 29, that went awry, wanted for the 2023 bombing of Catholic worshippers that left four dead and hurt 43 others, is now the subject of an extensive police and military manhunt.

Two confirmed coddlers of Kadapi Mimbesa Mortiaba in Barangay Tampilong in Marawi City, Mohaimen Hadji Ali Darimbang and a woman named Nesren Camar Solaiman, died instantly from bullet wounds sustained in the shootout at their hideout in Barangay Tampilong in Marawi City in Lanao del Sur.

Local executives and Maranao community leaders confirmed to reporters on Monday morning that Darimbang and Solaiman together coddled Mortiaba in a house in Barangay Tampilong, where they kept assault rifles and pistols and components for improvised explosive devices.

Mortiaba is known in Lanao del Sur, one of the five provinces in the Bangsamoro region, and in Cotabato City as one of the masterminds in the Dec. 3, 2023 bombing of Catholics during a mass at the gymnasium inside the campus of the Mindanao State University in Marawi City, killing four worshipers and hurting 43 others, including children.

Officials of the Lanao del Sur Provincial Police Office and Capt. Steffie Salanguit, spokesperson of the Police Regional Office-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region, separately told reporters on Monday that policemen were to arrest Mortiaba, at about midnight Saturday, after villagers had reported his presence in a house in Barangay Tampilong, but the attempt turned haywire when he, Darimbang and Solaiman pulled out guns and opened fire.

Mortiaba reportedly set off a fragmentation grenade to prevent policemen and soldiers tasked to serve him warrants for his arrest from closing in as he ran away.

A six-month-old girl inside their hideout was injured in the explosion and succumbed to multiple shrapnel wounds in a hospital later.

Salanguit said units of PRO-BAR in Marawi City are now searching for Mortiaba, who is wanted for terrorism and other high-profile criminal cases.

One of the more than 10 warrants for his arrest that policemen were soldiers were supposed to serve him peacefully on Saturday night in Barangay Tampilong was issued on October 11, 2024 by a Regional Trial Court in Iligan City where he is wanted for documented acts of terror, multiple murder and frustrated murder.

Mortiaba, a remnant of the now-defunct Dawlah Islamiya terror group, is also wanted for extortion, large-scale trafficking of shabu and marijuana and destructive arson. He was also implicated in more than 10 bomb attacks in different towns in Lanao del Sur and in the nearby Lanao del Norte province and in Iligan City, both in Region 10, in recent years.

Army Major Gen. Jose Vladimir Cagara, commander of the Western Mindanao Command, ordered on Sunday his subordinate officers in the Army’s 103rd Infantry Brigade securing Marawi City and towns around, to help the police locate Mortiaba.

PRO-BAR's regional director, Police Brig. Gen. Christopher Abecia, said on Monday that he is grateful to officials of the Army's 103rd Infantry Brigade and local executives in Lanao del Sur for supporting their effort to find Mortiaba for him to be prosecuted in courts for his criminal offenses.