IS-affiliated militants devastated Marawi in the Philippines. Now they have a new leader
- Hatib Hajan Sawadjaan has taken over the leadership of IS in the Philippines after the group suffered heavy losses
- His rise shows how IS will latch on desperately to any militant who can provide a sanctuary and armed fighters
Not much is known about Hatib Hajan Sawadjaan, but the attacks attributed to him heralding his rise are distinctly savage: a deadly bombing, which authorities say was a suicide attack by a foreign militant couple, blasted through a packed Roman Catholic cathedral in the middle of a Mass.
It also comes at a time when Islamic State’s last enclave in eastern Syria is near its imminent downfall, signalling an end to the territorial rule of the self-declared “caliphate” that once stretched across much of Syria and Iraq.
Philippine Interior Secretary Eduardo Ano, however, said intelligence indicated that Sawadjaan, a Jolo-based commander of the brutal Abu Sayyaf extremist group, was installed as IS chief in a ceremony last year. Three other extremist groups were recognised as IS allies, he said.
Founded in the early 1990s as an offshoot of the decades-long Muslim separatist rebellion in the south, the Abu Sayyaf lost its commanders early in battle, sending it to a violent path of terrorism and criminality. It has been blacklisted, along with IS-linked local groups, as a terrorist organisation by the United States.