IED event in Bangsamoro Autonomous Region, Cotobato City area, Philippines on Sun 29th October 2023

COTABATO CITY, Philippines — A ranking leader of the Dawlah Islamiya was killed in an accidental explosion of the home-made bomb he was to bring somewhere in Datu Salibo, Maguindanao del Sur on Sunday.

In separate statements Sunday, the Maguindanao del Sur Provincial Police Office and the commander of the Army’s 6th Infantry Division, Major Gen. Alex Rillera, confirmed the incident in one of the barangays in Datu Salibo that resulted in the death of Commander Pagadian, whose real name is Samaon Odin Amil, a senior leader of the Dawlah Islamiya.

The Army’s 601st Infantry Brigade, in a report to Rillera, said Amil was to bring an improvised explosive device that he had assembled to somewhere in Datu Salibo when it went off prematurely, killing him on the spot.

Traditional Moro leaders supporting the anti-terror Joint Task Force Central, also led by Rillera, had reported to the police and the 6th ID that Amil was a henchman of the bomber Abdulkareem Lumbatan Hashim, who was killed by police and Army intelligence operatives in a shootout at the public terminal in Tacurong City last January.

Hashim, whose alias was Commander Jacket, was tagged in bombings of buses and commercial establishments in central Mindanao months before soldiers and policemen had shot him dead for refusing arrest.