Philippines use Korean-made fighter jets in combat for first time to target Indonesian Terrorists

Philippines use Korean-made fighter jets in combat for first time to target Indonesian Terrorists

The target was militant leader Isnilon Hapilon, who has reportedly been designated to lead an Islamic State group branch in Southeast Asia

A suspected Indonesian militant was killed and one of Southeast Asia’s top terror suspects was seriously wounded as the Philippines launched airstrikes using South Korean-made fighter jets for the first time in combat, the military chief said Sunday.

Military Chief of Staff General Eduardo Ano said the body of the suspected Indonesian militant, known by his nom de guerre Mohisen, was recovered by troops along with three dead Filipino followers of militant leader Isnilon Hapilon, who was seriously wounded in the hilly outskirts of Butig town in Lanao del Sur province.

Eleven other militants were reportedly killed, Ano said, citing intelligence, but added their bodies have not been found.

Hapilon was wounded in the arm and was losing blood after air force aircraft, including FA50 supersonic fighter jets, unleashed six 225-kilogram bombs Wednesday night and Thursday on a militant encampment in an ongoing offensive, Ano and another air force official said. It was the first time that the FA50s, which were acquired from South Korea in late 2015 as the military’s only fighter jets, were deployed in a combat mission.

Four FA50s have been delivered and the rest of 12 jets are to be delivered by July, air force officials said. President Rodrigo Duterte has criticised the FA50s as being inadequate for counter-insurgency and good only as fly-by aircraft for ceremonies.

 “We’re making it very difficult for them to move around and survive,” Ano said.

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The military will ask Indonesian authorities for help in confirming the identity and background of Mohisen, who was not among the foreigners previously monitored as having joined Filipino militant groups in the south.

Hapilon, who is on the US Department of Justice list of most-wanted terrorists worldwide with a reward of up to $5 million for his capture, moved to Butig from his stronghold on southern Basilan island a month ago with about 30 fighters to look for a base, Ano said.

IS group commanders apparently wanted Hapilon to set up a base in Lanao, a vast region that offers more security than his mountain base on Basilan island, so foreign militants can have a springboard to expand their influence, he said.

The ongoing offensive “is significant because it will derail their plan to expand the IS presence to mainland Mindanao,” said Defence Secretary Delfin Lorenzana, referring to the southern Philippine region, the scene of decades-long uprisings by minority Muslims.

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Duterte has repeatedly warned the emergence of Islamic State-influenced militant groups is fast looming as a major national security threat. While pursuing peace talks with two large Muslim rebel groups in the predominantly Roman Catholic nation, he has ordered the military to destroy smaller but brutal extremist groups like the Abu Sayyaf, which is dreaded for cross-border kidnappings, beheadings and bombings.

Duterte has asked the two Muslim rebel groups in talks with the government not to help extremists under attack by troops, warning that may bring them in a new conflict with Manila.

The elusive Hapilon, an Arabic-speaking Islamic preacher known for his expertise on commando assaults, pledged allegiance to the IS group in 2014.

He then organised an alliance called Dawlatul Islam Wilayatul Mashriq, which is now believed to include at least 10 small militant groups including some Abu Sayyaf factions and the Maute armed group, which he was meeting in Lanao when the military launched the airstrikes using the FA50s and OV-10 bomber planes.

The Maute and the Ansar Al Khilafah Philippines, another group under Hapilon’s nascent alliance, have been linked to a September 2 bombing of a night market that killed 15 people and wounded 69 others in southern Davao city, the president’s hometown, and a failed bombing at Manila’s popular Rizal Park and a promenade near the US Embassy last year.

This article appeared in the South China Morning Post print edition as:

Indonesian militant ‘dies in Philippine air strike’