Asked if Hapilon was on the run, he said: "Yes, yes because reportedly he suffered a lot of casualties. Security analysts say he has been recognised by IS as its "amir", or leader, in Southeast Asia, a region where the group wants to establish a caliphate. The military says Hapilon's group had joined forces with another armed militancy, the Maute Group, to launch the Marawi siege, now on its second month. Galvez said troops on Friday recovered two decomposing corpses that bore features of people from the Middle East. Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines on June 19 launched joint patrols on their maritime borders to block the movement of the militants.

Source: The Nation Bangkok June 24, 2017 07:07 UTC