Philippines arrests Islamic State terror funding ‘facilitator’ that was on US terror watch list

Name: Survivors of Philippines Catholic church bombing recall deadly blast
Uploaded: 2024-02-15T12:02:14.000Z
Duration: 3 min 55 s
Description: Survivors of Philippines Catholic church bombing recall deadly blast

The US and Philippine governments allege Myrna Mabanza was involved in two 2016 fund transfers – one of up to US$107,000 – to the then leader of ISIS-Philippines

Mabanza also helped arrange travel of a pro-IS group from Indonesia to the Philippines to buy weapons and train militants how to handle firearms and make bombs

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Philippine law enforcers arrested a woman on a US terror watch list for allegedly helping transfer funds to an Islamic State leader in Southeast Asia in 2016. Photo: Shutterstock

Agence France-PresseandReuters

Published: 8:02pm, 15 Feb 2024

The Philippine government said it arrested a woman on Thursday tagged by the United States as a facilitator for “terror” who gave money and other aid to an Islamic State group leader in Southeast Asia in 2016.

Myrna Mabanza was arrested near the town of Indanan in the southern Sulu island group, a stronghold of an IS-linked armed militant group called Abu Sayyaf, according to a statement from Manila’s Anti-Terrorism Council.

The US treasury department in 2018 listed Philippines-based Mabanza as a “facilitator for terror”, saying she supported the Philippine branch of ISIS, an alternate name for IS.

It accused her of “assisting in, sponsoring, or providing financial, material, or technological support for, or financial or other services to or in support of” ISIS-Philippines.

The US and Philippine governments both alleged the 32-year-old was involved in two 2016 fund transfers – one of up to US$107,000 – to the then leader of the Abu Sayyaf militant group and ISIS-Philippines, Isnilon Hapilon.

Mabanza was also alleged to have served as intermediary between Hapilon and IS elements in Syria.

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Survivors of Philippines Catholic church bombing recall deadly blast

In April that year, Mabanza “helped facilitate” a trip by a representative of the IS-linked group Jamaah Ansharut Daulah from Indonesia to the Philippines, where she took the person to Basilan island to meet Hapilon, the two governments said.