11/08/2023, 13:24 A New Filipino Leader for Southeast Asia’s Islamic State – The Diplomat

FEATURES | SECURITY | SOUTHEAST ASIA

A New Filipino
Leader for
Southeast Asia’s
Islamic State
It’s not clear if Abu Turaife
can garner support from IS
adherents in the region
and galvanize local
militants or whether pro-IS
groups in the Philippines
are on the decline. 

By Zam Yusa
August 09, 2023

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11/08/2023, 13:24 A New Filipino Leader for Southeast Asia’s Islamic State – The Diplomat

Philippine Soldiers practice room clearing

techniques during counterterrorism training
in support of Balikatan 2017 at Fort
Magsaysay in Santa Rosa, Nueva Ecija, May
11, 2017.
Credit: U.S. Navy photo by Mass
Communication Specialist 2nd Class Daniel
James Lewis

The recent announcement of a new Filipino

leader of the Islamic State (IS) terror group in
Southeast Asia has generated a buzz in the
online sphere.

Esmael Abdulmalik, also known as Abu

Turaife, the leader of the Turaife faction, one
of the two pro-IS factions of the Bangsamoro
Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF) terror group
in the southern Philippines, was touted
recently by pro-IS media channels as the new
emir. 

Abu Turaife allegedly stepped up to the

regional IS top spot after the killing of his
predecessor, Maute Group leader Faharuddin
Hadji Sattar, also known as Jer Mimbantas and
Abu Zacharia, in a Philippine military
operation in June of this year.

Analysts offered differing opinions on whether

Abu Turaife would galvanize support for the
terror group in the Philippines and the wider
region.

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For one thing, the new leader may bring new

tensions to Southeast Asia and encourage
nationals from the region to join IS, according
to an Indonesian analyst.

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“The announcement was very concerning, but

predictable,” Ulta Levenia Nababan, the lead
researcher at Jakarta-based think tank
Galatea, told The Diplomat.

“According to my research findings with

Semar Sentinel [a think tank] in 2019, he was
indeed very influential. I did not manage to
meet him, but I met his senior, Kagi Karialan,
and made a short observation of the Turaife
camp in Maguindanao province.

“Kagi Karialan had 50-100 men but Abu

Turaife had around 100-200 militias because
he was hosting remnants of the Marawi siege
from the Maute Group after they were
defeated in Marawi.”

Kagi Karialan is the moniker of Mohidin

Animbang, who leads the non-IS-aligned
Karialan faction of the BIFF, a splinter from
the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), a
former rebel group which now administers an
autonomous region called the Bangsamoro
Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao
(BARMM).

The Maute Group, along with another pro-IS

group, the Abu Sayyaf Group, laid siege to the
southern city of Marawi in 2017 in an attempt
to establish a territory for the so-called Islamic
State East Asia (ISEA) wilayat, or province,
which reportedly encompassed the
Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, and
Thailand.

A fierce five-month urban battle ensued before

Philippine government troops retook the city

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from the clutches of the IS militants in October

of that year. 

According to Ulta, Karialan further said that

Turaife welcomed foreign terrorist fighters
mainly from Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia,
and some Arab nations after the Marawi siege.
Karialan said he was unsure about their
nationalities, though he knew they were not
Filipinos.

“Before they [Turaife and Karialan] broke up,

Turaife also offered Karialan to host those
foreign terrorist fighters (FTFs) in exchange of
funds from ISIS but Karialan rejected it,” said
Ulta, who conducted field research in
Mindanao in 2019.

“I think, with this new designation for Turaife,

it would again open up the possibility of more
foreign terrorist fighters into the southern
Philippine terrorism movement or conflict. My
assessment is that Turaife is still very keen to
welcome those FTFs and fight with them
against the Philippine government.”

Ulta said last year’s information indicated Abu

Turaife was injured in attacks by the
Philippine military, but  has likely now
recovered and is again raising tensions in the
region. 

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“Also those terrorists who were under the

Anshar Khalifah Philippines or AKP previously
led by Tokboy Maguid are now with Turaife,”
said Ulta, referring to another local terror
group aligned with IS.

“This is why I think Turaife as a new IS emir

will bring new tension in the region and
probably will provoke Southeast Asian
nationals to join him.”

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A Philippines-based analyst said Abu Turaife’s

appointment was unexpected but still logical. 

“Last year, he was very sick and this has led

some to believe he actually died. Not many
jihadists from the last seven years are alive, so
if there was a choice, then Turaife is natural –
combining credibility as a preacher, fighter
and someone who already became a name,”
said Georgi Engelbrecht, senior Philippines
analyst at the International Crisis Group.

“Most of his fighters are relatives and as a

Maguindanaon, he may not have a lot of soft
power over Maranaos or the Tausugs. Given
the Abu Sayyaf (ASG) in Sulu is in disarray in
any case, and the Maute remnants are also
without a leader after Zacharia’s killing, we
can probably expect each theater to focus on
their own issues,” explained Engelbrecht,
referring to the two major ethnic groups in
Mindanao.

Engelbrecht said the position of emir is highly

symbolic, but in terms of operational
capabilities, the militants are under serious
pressure as they would need more adaptive
and creative leaders. 

“Turaife is old school and an old guard, so we

know it will be difficult for him to both
operate on his own in central Mindanao, let
alone control fighters elsewhere,” he said.

“I think the loss of Salahuddin Hassan was also

a big disadvantage to the militants. At some
point, he and Turaife were not even in one
organization, it seemed he did his own thing.
In any case, after he died, some of his men
returned back to Turaife while others
ventured out,” Engelbrecht added, referring to
another slain Filipino IS leader for the region.

Despite his potential menace, Abu Turaife is

confronted with the formidable task of
convincingly asserting his emirship and

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gaining the unwavering allegiance of his

followers, said a Malaysian analyst.

“We know that he had been turned down for

the role before, which signals his reluctance to
take charge for his own reasons. The fact the
group continues to follow the declaration
protocol, confusing as it was, suggests their
belief in the relevance of their existence to the
expansion efforts of IS in the region,” Munira
Mustaffa, executive director and principal
consultant at Chasseur Group, told The
Diplomat.

“This is notwithstanding the overall

diminishing and weakening of the
organization, and I supposed the
counterterrorism efforts have not been
substantial enough to quell its persistence or
cease its potential resurgence. Its militant
members, stubbornly optimistic, continue to
operate as an active insurgency, despite the
ongoing Philippine military pressure.”

Munira, a former analyst at Malaysia’s

Southeast Asia Regional Centre of
Counterterrorism, said it remains uncertain
whether Abu Turaife’s announced leadership
will substantially affect or influence any
militants in Malaysia, considering their
divergent political agendas and long-term and
short-term objectives.

“The prospect of receiving support from

Malaysia appears slim due to these preference
divergences,” she said. “The fact that this
announcement is unofficial implies a
detachment from the operational priorities of
central IS, suggesting the general status of IS in
the region is dwindling and that they are now,
or have been, operating independently from
IS. 

“In contrast, IS remains an enduring problem

in the Middle East and Africa,” she added.
“Therefore, the IS brand in Southeast Asia, the
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so-called ISEA, may hold some symbolic value,

but it might not have any substantive value
beyond that.”

Similarly, Engelbrecht said he believed that

apart from a short buzz in the online sphere,
there will not be substantive reaction on the
ground to the announcement.

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“Turaife’s relatives and perhaps the members

of Salahuddin Hassan’s group would try to get
a boost out of it, but the Maute remnants and
the ASG have other things to focus on,” he
said. 

“I’m not sure if there will be a competition to

Abu Turaife even though the Maranaos would
probably wonder why not another Maranao
replaced Zacharia.”

Engelbrecht said IS has definitely weakened in

Mindanao. 

“Usually, these movements are also tied to the

legitimacy of the peace process and the overall
sphere of things. Should the BARMM
underperform and issues between
government and the MILF remain at times
tense, then it might get revitalized,” he said.

“The key date for this is 2025. But again, not all
frustrated rebels would jump on a jihadist
alternative,” said Engelbrecht, referring to the
year the Bangsamoro Parliament election is
scheduled to take place in BARMM.

“Well, the usual caveats – all politics and

conflict are highly local, there are mixed
results from government/regional
interventions and you cannot kill an idea by
force. A key period to watch will be the village
elections in late October this year.

“I feel ISEA / Southeast Asia is not much of a

priority (for IS) anymore.”
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A spokesman for a military command in

Mindanao said they have not received any
information on Abu Turaife as the new leader
of IS in the Philippines and the region but
operations against the various terror groups
were ongoing.

“We have decisive military operations, intel

operations and civil-military operations to
neutralize these terrorists like DI, BIFF and
Abu Sayyaf Group,” Maj. Andrew Linao, the
spokesperson for the Western Mindanao
Command, told The Diplomat. 

“We are also declaring areas clear of terrorists

and ready for further developments like Sulu
province and Zamboanga peninsula.”

DI is short for Dawlah Islamiyah or Islamic

State, an umbrella term for pro-IS terror
groups. It is also sometimes used to refer to the
Maute Group.

The Philippine military in July announced that

the southern island province of Sulu had been
cleared of Abu Sayyaf bandits, although sub-
leader Mudzrimar Sawadjaan, also known as
Mundi, a bomb expert wanted by the
Philippines and Malaysia, is still at large was
reportedly last seen in Basilan province.

He was tagged in suicide bombings in Sulu

including by Indonesian IS terrorists.

The newly installed Philippine military chief,

Gen. Romeo Brawner, also in July said the
nation expects to see total victory against
Moro militants by the year’s end, a familiar
statement made by almost all previous chiefs
during their respective tenures.

Whether Abu Turaife will garner support from

IS adherents in the region and galvanize local
militants to support him back home, and
whether pro-IS groups in the Philippines will
cease to exist by the year’s end or remain, only
time will tell.
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AUTHORS

GUEST AUTHOR

Zam Yusa
Zam Yusa is a Malaysian journalist based in
Sabah, Malaysian Borneo, who focuses on
Southeast Asian terrorism and
counterterrorism issues.

Follow Zam on Threadsand X.

TAGS

Features Security Southeast Asia Indonesia Philippines

Abu Turaife Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF)

Islamic State Islamic State in Southeast Asia Maute group

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