Muslim terrorist leader 'who craved ISIS recognition' is tracked down to a beach and shot dead by Philippine security force

  • Mohammad Jaafar Maguid was founder of the Ansarul Khilafa Philippines group
  • Terror cell has carried out deadly attacks on civilians 'to win support for ISIS'
  • Leader was tracked down to a beach resort  on the southern island of Mindanao

By Afp and Julian Robinson for MailOnline

Published: 01:04 EST, 5 January 2017 | Updated: 03:55 EST, 5 January 2017

A terrorist leader who 'craved ISIS recognition' has been tracked down to a beach and shot dead by Philippine security forces, it has emerged.

Mohammad Jaafar Maguid, founder of Ansarul Khilafa Philippines, was killed at a holiday resort on the southern island of Mindanao shortly after midnight, while three 'cohorts' were arrested.

The terror group has carried out deadly attacks on civilians to win support from ISIS fighters in Iraq and Syria, police said.  

It is one of several violent Islamic militant groups on Mindanao, homeland of a large Filipino Muslim minority where a decades-old separatist rebellion has claimed more than 120,000 lives.

Weapons and ISIS flags recovered from members of Ansarul Khilafa in November, 2015 - the group is one of several violent Islamic militant groups in the southern Philippines

'He's wanted for bombing incidents. They use improvised explosive devices, killing people at town festivals,' Chief Superintendent Cedric Train, the regional police chief, told AFP.

'They fly the ISIS flag in their camps. They want to be recognised by the ISIS,' Train added.

The military killed eight Ansarul Khilafa members in a clash in November 2015 at Maguid's Mindanao hometown of Palimbang, 600 miles south of Manila.

Interior Secretary Ismael Sueno warned of potential violent repercussions from the death of Maguid, more widely known by his nickname of Commander Tokboy.

'They might retaliate so we have to double our preparations,' Sueno said, citing large Catholic religious festivals in the Philippines this month.

The terror group has carried out deadly attacks on civilians to win support from ISIS fighters in Iraq and Syria, police said (file picture of security forces)

Ansarul Khilafa was behind an attack that left two civilians dead on Mindanao in 2008 as well as a series of robberies and other crimes, according to Sidney Jones, director of the Indonesia-based Institute for Policy Analysis of Conflict.

Maguid was arrested in 2009 but escaped eight months later, Jones said in a research paper published in October last year.

Train said the authorities had also been looking into Ansarul Khilafa's role in a bombing in Davao, Mindanao's largest city in September last year that killed 15 people and injured dozens of others.

Maguid, who Train said was aged 32, appeared in a video circulated on social media networks last year with the leaders of other local militant groups pledging allegiance to ISIS.

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