Marcus Brogden
16 January 2016•Update: 18 January 2016
By Hader Glang
ZAMBOANGA CITY, Philippines
Two gunmen wearing black jackets and Daesh head bands have been killed in separate clashes in the southern Philippines, the military said Saturday.
Col. Roseller Murillo, commander of the Army's 103rd Infantry Brigade based in Marawi city, told GMA News online that the suspected Daesh sympathizers were killed along with two civilians in clashes in Lanao del Sur province Friday.
He said the clashes occurred around 6 a.m (2200GMT Thursday) when civilians saw armed men wearing Daesh insignia roaming around a village in Barangay Gata in Buadipuso Buntong town, Murillo.
Residents were then fired on after a village leader sent his men to investigate.
One of the alleged Daesh supporters was killed in the subsequent clash and another man killed in a separate clash with government troops in Barangay Lilod, Maguing town at around 11:20 a.m., according to Murillo.
The military commander said both men have yet to be identified.
The Abu Sayyaf has pledged allegiance to Daesh, while another armed group in the South, the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters, has also offered its support.
Philippine security officials, however, have downplayed any link.
On Saturday, the head of Indonesian police Gen. Badrodin Haiti told reporters that firearms used by a Daesh-linked group in an attack on Jakarta in which 7 people died were made in the Philippines
He did not make any connection, however, with any particular armed groups that operate in the Philippines' troubled southern Mindanao region.
