Soldiers and policemen shot dead two male and a female member of the Dawlah Islamiya terror group they were supposed to arrest on Saturday, August 9, in Lumbayanague town in Lanao del Sur in an operation that turned haywire.

Lt. Gen. Antonio Nafarrete, commander of the Philippine Army, and Brig Gen. Jaysen De Guzman, director of the Police Regional Office-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region, separately told reporters on Sunday, August 10, that the encounter in Barangay Lamin in Lumbayanague erupted when the local terrorists opened fire at the law-enforcement team dispatched to serve them warrants of arrest from different courts where they are wanted for high-profile criminal cases.

Local officials, among them traditional Maranao community elders, had confirmed that three Dawlah Islamiya members, Mohammad Nasif Pangandama, Abdullah Kadil Mituon, and a woman, Rahma Mindo Salik, also known as Nahara, were killed in the ensuing encounter that waned only after their companions ran out of ammunition and scampered away.

Three cohorts of the slain terrorists, Fahad Sarip Maruhom, Norhan Otik Kamid and Asnawi Kadir Abdullah, were arrested by pursuing policemen, according to officials of the Lanao del Sur Provincial Police Office and local executives in Lumbayanague.

Local officials said the now detained three terrorists looked so emaciated, possibly due to lack of food owing to their having been restrained from moving around to extort money and food from villagers due to the police, the military and Lanao del Sur provincial government’ intensified joint anti-terror campaign in the province.

Reports reaching De Guzman’s office at Camp SK Pendatun in Parang, Maguindanao del Norte stated that the three slain Dawlah Islamiya members were all wanted for multiple murder, armed robbery, large-scale trafficking of narcotics and extortion.

Officials of the Army’s 103rd Infantry Brigade covering all of the 39 towns in Lanao del Sur and its capital, Marawi City, said the soldiers and policemen tasked to peacefully arrest them in an operation that went awry when they refused to cooperate found assault rifles, improvised explosive devices, an M79 grenade launcher and fragmentation grenades.

Photo shows the three Dawlah Islamiya members arrested by policemen and soldiers during an encounter in Barangay Lamin in Lumbayanague, now locked in a police detention facility. (August 10, 2025, Lumbayanague, Lanao del Sur, Bangsamoro Region)