2017 Bohol clashes | |||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Part of the Moro conflict | |||||||
Pump boats used by Abu Sayyaf in the Bohol attack | |||||||
| |||||||
Belligerents | |||||||
Commanders and leaders | |||||||
Rodrigo Duterte Oscar T. Lactao Noli G. Taliño | Muammar Askali † Abu Rami Joselito Melloria † Abu Alih | ||||||
Units involved | |||||||
Philippine Army Philippine Navy Philippine Air Force Philippine National Police | Marakat Ansar Battalion (ASG) | ||||||
Strength | |||||||
1,000+ | 11 militants | ||||||
Casualties and losses | |||||||
4 killed 2 wounded | 11 killed | ||||||
2 civilians killed, 425–700 individuals evacuated; more than a thousand displaced. [1] |
The 2017 Bohol clashes were armed conflicts that took place in April and May 2017 between Philippine security forces and Moro ISIL-affiliated militants led by members of the Abu Sayyaf in Inabanga, Bohol, Philippines. Three Philippine Army soldiers, a policeman, four terrorists and two civilians were killed during the initial firefight. Subsequent firefights between the remaining militants and security forces resulted in the deaths of all the Abu Sayyaf insurgents. A ranking officer of the Philippine National Police linked to Abu Sayyaf attempted to rescue some of the insurgents but was arrested.
The clashes marked the first recorded operation of the Abu Sayyaf group in the Visayas region of the Philippines, far from their strongholds in the Sulu Archipelago. [2]
Five days before the initial incident, the Armed Forces of the Philippines had detected the departure of a group of Abu Sayyaf from Indanan, Sulu bound for the Central Visayas. On April 9, 2017, the US Embassy in Manila issued a travel warning based on "credible" reports of kidnapping threats. A day before the first firefight, the AFP received reports of the presence of eleven armed men in three pump boats entering the Inabanga River in Bohol. [3]
A firefight between a joint Philippine Army and police force and the Abu Sayyaf began at approximately 5:00 in the morning of April 11, 2017, in Barangay Napo in the town of Inabanga. A Philippine Air Force plane conducted airstrikes against the Abu Sayyaf, [4] while a Philippine Navy gunboat was deployed to block possible escape routes by sea. [2] Three Philippine Army troopers, a policeman, two civilians and four Abu Sayyaf members were killed in the clash. Reports indicated that three extremist groups that have pledged allegiance to ISIL participated in the Bohol attack: a hard-line Abu Sayyaf faction known as the Marakat Ansar Battalion (called the Marakah al Ansar Battalion by another source), [5] the Maute group and Ansar Khalifa Philippines. [6]
A day after the firefight, the body of Abu Sayyaf sub-leader Muamar Askali, also known as Abu Rami, was recovered from the scene of the clash. [7] Askali was implicated in the beheading of two Canadian hostages, John Ridsdel and Robert Hall in 2016, and German tourist Jürgen Kantner in February 2017. [6] On April 13, two days after the clash, another Abu Sayyaf fatality was recovered by security forces after being buried by his companions in Barangay Lonoy Cainsican in Inabanga. [8]
Two civilians killed in the firefight were initially tagged as Abu Sayyaf casualties. Government troops recovered M16 and M4 rifles, and bomb-making paraphernalia from the scene of the clash. [9] The Armed Forces of the Philippines and civil authorities declared Bohol "cleared" a day after the firefight. [10]
On April 22, 2017, four more Abu Sayyaf militants were killed during firefights in Bohol, including sub-leader and guide Joselito Melloria, also known as Abu Alih. [11] Two weeks later, the AFP announced the arrest of Abu Saad, one of the three remaining Abu Sayyaf members who had evaded capture. [12] A day later, Abu Saad was reported killed after attempting to escape while in police custody. [13] The last two militants were finally located after they took a local resident hostage and were killed in a firefight against security forces on May 15, 2017. [14]
On the evening of April 22, 2017, Police Supt. Maria Christina Nobleza, the deputy regional chief of the crime laboratory in the Davao Region, and her alleged lover, Reenor Lou Dungon, were arrested in a military checkpoint in Barangay Bacani, Clarin, Bohol. The two, authorities stated, were planning to rescue the remaining Abu Sayyaf members who were being hunted down by government troops. Dungon is said to be the brother-in-law of slain Abu Sayyaf leader Abu Solaiman. [15]
Abu Sayyaf, officially known by the Islamic State as the Islamic State – East Asia Province, is a Jihadist militant and pirate group that follows the Wahhabi doctrine of Sunni Islam. It is based in and around Jolo and Basilan islands in the southwestern part of the Philippines, where for more than four decades, Moro groups have been engaged in an insurgency seeking to make Moro Province independent. The group is considered violent and was responsible for the Philippines' worst terrorist attack, the bombing of MV Superferry 14 in 2004, which killed 116 people. The name of the group is derived from the Arabic abu ; "father of"), and sayyaf. As of June 2021, the group is estimated to have less than 50 members, down from 1,250 in 2000. They use mostly improvised explosive devices, mortars and automatic rifles.
Bohol, officially the Province of Bohol, is an island province of the Philippines located in the Central Visayas region, consisting of the island itself and 75 minor surrounding islands. Its capital is Tagbilaran. With a land area of 4,821 km2 (1,861 sq mi) and a coastline 261 km (162 mi) long, Bohol is the tenth largest island of the Philippines.
Inabanga, officially the Municipality of Inabanga, is a 3rd class municipality in the province of Bohol, Philippines. According to the 2020 census, it has a population of 48,534 people.
The Moro conflict is an insurgency in the Mindanao region of the Philippines, which has involved multiple armed groups, and has been ongoing since March 1968. Peace deals have been signed between the Philippine government and two major armed groups, the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), but other smaller armed groups continue to exist. In 2017, the peace council settled around 138 clan conflicts.
Isnilon Totoni Hapilon, also known by the nom de guerreAbu Abdullah al-Filipini, was a Moro Filipino Islamist militant affiliated with ISIS. He was formerly leader of Abu Sayyaf Group, before its battalions pledged their allegiance to Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. An April 2016 issue of ISIL's weekly newsletter Al Naba said that Hapilon had been appointed as "emir of all Islamic State forces in the Philippines".
The civil conflict in the Philippines as of February 2019, consists of an insurgency pitting government forces against Maoist rebels, that began in 1969 during the rule of Ferdinand Marcos.
The Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF), also known as the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Movement, is an Islamist militant organization based in Mindanao, the Philippines. It is a smaller player in the overall Moro insurgency in the Philippines and is mostly active in Maguindanao and other places in central Mindanao. It is a breakaway group from the Moro Islamic Liberation Front founded by Ameril Umbra Kato. Following Kato's death, the group split into three factions, one of which has aligned with the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), while the other two are less radical.
2017 in the Philippines details events of note that happened in the Philippines in 2017.
This article contains a timeline of events from January 2016 to December 2016 related to the IS-linked Abu Sayyaf. This article contains information about the events committed by or on behalf of the Abu Sayyaf, as well as events performed by groups who oppose them.
The following is a list of attacks which have been carried out by Abu Sayyaf, a militant group based in and around Jolo and Basilan islands in the southwestern part of the Philippines, where for more than four decades, Moro groups have been engaged in an insurgency for an independent province in the country.
The Maute group, also known as the Islamic State of Lanao, was a radical Islamist group composed of former Moro Islamic Liberation Front guerrillas and foreign fighters led by Omar Maute, the alleged founder of a Dawlah Islamiya, or Islamic state, based in Lanao del Sur, Mindanao, Philippines. The group, which a Philippine Army brigade commander characterized as terrorist, had been conducting a protection racket in the remote settlements of Butig, Lanao del Sur. It had clashed on several occasions with Armed Forces of the Philippines troops, the most significant of which began in May 2017 and culminated in the Battle of Marawi.
Abu Sayyaf (ASG) is a radical Sunni Islamist group that has aggressively attacked civilians since the 1990s. It is notorious for beheading both military and civilian captives, especially when kidnap-for-ransom demands are not met. ASG victims include Filipino citizens as well as foreign nationals. Abu Sayyaf primarily operates in western Mindanao and the Sulu Archipelago of the southern Philippines.
A bombing at the Roxas Night Market occurred in Davao City, Philippines, on September 2, 2016, causing at least 14 deaths and 70 injuries. On September 13, 2016, one of those injured, a pregnant woman, died, bringing the death toll up to 15.
Ansar Khalifa Philippines, also referred to as Ansar al-Khilafah in the Philippines and Ansarul Khilafah Philippines is a Philippine-based militant group that emerged in August 2014 when it released a video pledging allegiance to ISIS. The Armed Forces of the Philippines, however, characterizes the group as "bandits" engaging in cattle rustling and extortion activities.
The siege of Marawi, also known as the Marawi crisis, and the Battle of Marawi, was a five-month-long armed conflict in Marawi, Philippines, that started on May 23, 2017, between Philippine government security forces against militants affiliated with the Islamic State (IS), including the Maute and Abu Sayyaf Salafi jihadist groups. The battle also became the longest urban battle in the modern history of the Philippines.
The Philippines is one of the state opponents of the militant group, Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), more commonly referred to by the local media as the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS).
The Inabanga River is the largest river in Bohol, Philippines. It is 25 kilometres (16 mi) long and up to 7 to 10 metres deep at its mouth at the town of Inabanga.
This is a chronology of the Moro conflict, an ongoing armed conflict in the southern Philippines between jihadist groups such as the Abu Sayyaf Group, the Maute Group, Jemaah Islamiyah, and Islamic State affiliates, mainstream separatist groups such as the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) and the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF), and the Philippine Government since 1971. Much of the fighting has been concentrated on the island of Mindanao and the Sulu archipelago, with spillover incidents and attacks occurring in the Philippine capital Manila and neighboring countries such as Malaysia.
Herbert D. Dilag is a Philippine Army officer and a recipient the Philippines' highest military award for courage, the Medal of Valor. He is a member of the Igorot people, an ethnic group that inhabits the provinces of the Cordillera Administrative Region in the Philippines.
On July 31, 2018, a bomb exploded in the town of Lamitan in Basilan, Philippines.