US DNA tests have confirmed that an ISIS-affiliated militant commander who helped lead the Marawi siege was killed in a military operation last month.
Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana said Owaida Marohombsar, who was also known by his nom de guerre Abu Dar, was killed in a March 14 gunbattle in Lanao del Sur in northwest Mindanao.
The operation also killed four soldiers and three other militants in Tuburan town.
Lorenzana added that for now, the radical Islamist Maute Group is “leaderless” and that authorities are “monitoring who will replace Dar.”
Abu Dar survived the Philippine airstrikes and ground assaults in Marawi City and apparently took with him at least P30 million in stolen cash and jewelry.
Authorities fear that with that amount of money, Abu Dar could rebuild the militant’s battered organization and plot new attacks, Zia Adiong, a regional official told the Associated Press.
Intelligence reports on Abu Dar say he underwent military and explosives training in Afghanistan in 2005. A few years later, he established an armed group called the Khilafa Islamiyyah Mindanao and perpetrated series of terror attacks in Mindanao.
He was one of the leaders who pledged allegiance to the ISIS flag in 2015. In 2016, this group led by Abu Sayyaf commander Isnilon Hapilon took control over the Muslim-populated Marawi City
Military authorities claimed that the killing of Abu Dar as “milestone” in the fight against terror.
