By MARTIN SADONGDONG
Four suspected Islamic State (ISIS)-linked terrorists were killed in a joint police and military raid in Don Bosco, Parañaque City minutes past Friday midnight.
Police Major General Debold Sinas, regional director of the National Capital Region Police Office (NCRPO), identified the suspects as Bensaudi Sali alias “Boy,” 37; his reported wife Merhama Abdul Sawari alias “Mheng,” around 40 to 45 years old; Rasmin Hussin alias “Boscon;” and Jamal Kalliming alias “Pando.”
According to Sinas, joint units of the NCRPO, Paranaque City police, Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and National Intelligence Coordination Agency (NICA) were implementing a search warrant at the house of Sali in Better Living Subdivision around 12:30 a.m. when they were met with gunfire.
The suspects allegedly tried to lob a grenade at the police and military but it went off prematurely, Sinas said.
The police and military retaliated which led to the death of the suspects.
According to the NCRPO chief, the operation stemmed from the intelligence information they received about the presence of a group of Dawlah Islamiyah acting as a financial conduit in Parañaque City beginning in November 2019.
Dawlah Islamiyah (Arabic for Islamic State) is a faction of the Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG) that is affiliated with the ISIS. It is being headed by ASG sub-leader Hajan Sawadjaan.
“They were tagged as a financial conduit of Daesh-East Asia because of their established connection with Dawlah Islamiyah bomb expert and sub-leader Mundi Sawadjaan alias Abu Marwan,” Sinas said, referring to the nephew of Hajan.
The operation was covered with a warrant issued by Judge Noemi Balitaan of the Parañaque City Regional Trial Court Branch 258 for violation of Republic Act 10591 or the Comprehensive Firearms and Ammunition Regulation Act.
The incident also resulted in the wounding of Police Corporal Ehrol Gamboa of the Regional Security Operations Group (RSOG) of the NCRPO. He was brought to a hospital in Taguig City due to a bullet wound in the left leg.
According to joint intelligence reports, Sali was a member of the ASG Dawlah Islamiyah in Sulu. He was a native of Jolo who had been working as a security guard in a residential condominium in Parañaque City.
Meanwhile, Sawari was also tagged as an ASG terrorist. She was said to be working as the group’s finance and logistics facilitator of support coming from Sulawesi, Indonesia.
Sawari even received a money remittance from Indonesian terrorist Yoga Fabrianto, who was also linked to ISIS, before the latter was arrested in Sabah, Malaysia in June 2019, according to intelligence reports.
During his arrest, Fabrianto told Malaysian authorities that an Indonesian couple was behind the infamous Jolo Cathedral twin bombings on January 27, 2019 that killed 23 people.
Hussin and Kalliming, who were both security guards like Sali, were alleged cohorts of the two ASG suspects, according to intelligence reports.
During the clearing operations after the raid, authorities recovered from the encounter site three blasing caps, various wires, two bottles of white and brownish granules which are suspected to be ingredients for explosives, two pistols, two revolvers, two ISIS flags, two hand grenades, an M16 rifle, a match, a plastic container with silver powder, an improvised hand grenade fuse assembly with detonating cord, and a nine-volt battery.
With the death of the four suspects, Sinas vowed to further intensify their intelligence efforts to apprehend security threats in Metro Manila.
