The leader of a faction of the Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG) is now the apparent commander of jihadists’ groups in Southeast Asia.
Isnilon Hapilon, who leads the ASG faction al-Harakat al-Islamiyah in Basilan province in southern Mindanao, has been named to head the groups by Abu Baker al-Baghdadi, the caliph of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS). This assessment was based by Abu Abdulrahman al-Filibini–who speaks the Filipino language fluently–on a supposedly recent video.