Abdullah Maute (died August 7, 2017) was a Moro militant who co-founded, along with his brother Omar Maute, a ''Dawlah Islamiyah'' (

Islamic state An Islamic state is a State (polity), state that has a form of government based on sharia, Islamic law (sharia). As a term, it has been used to describe various historical Polity, polities and theories of governance in the Islamic world. As a t ...

) group in

Mindanao Mindanao ( ) ( Jawi: مينداناو) is the second-largest island in the Philippines, after Luzon, and seventh-most populous island in the world. Located in the southern region of the archipelago, the island is part of an island group of ...

Philippines The Philippines (; fil, Pilipinas, links=no), officially the Republic of the Philippines ( fil, Republika ng Pilipinas, links=no), * bik, Republika kan Filipinas * ceb, Republika sa Pilipinas * cbk, República de Filipinas * hil, Republ ...

commonly known as the

Maute group The Maute group ( or ), also known as the Islamic State of Lanao, was a radical Islamist group composed of former Moro Islamic Liberation Front guerrillas and foreign fighters led by Omar Maute, the alleged founder of a ''Dawlah Islamiya'', or ...

after their surname. On September 4, 2017, the Philippine military announced that Maute had been killed in an airstrike in August 7, 2017 during the

Battle of Marawi The siege of Marawi ( fil, Pagkubkob sa Marawi), also known as the Marawi crisis (), and the Battle of Marawi (), was a five-month-long armed conflict in Marawi, Philippines, that started on May 23, 2017, between Philippine government security ...

. They cited

ISIL An Islamic state is a state that has a form of government based on Islamic law (sharia). As a term, it has been used to describe various historical polities and theories of governance in the Islamic world. As a translation of the Arabic term ...

sympathizers proclaiming his death as an act of martyrdom on the social media platform

Telegram Telegraphy is the long-distance transmission of messages where the sender uses symbolic codes, known to the recipient, rather than a physical exchange of an object bearing the message. Thus flag semaphore is a method of telegraphy, whereas p ...

. He was referred to as "Sheik Al Miyahad Abu Al Hassan", an alias he was known to have used within the ISIL network.

AFP Western Mindanao Command The Western Mindanao Command (abbrv. as WESTMINCOM) is the Armed Forces of the Philippines' unified Command (military formation), command in charge of the Zamboanga Peninsula, Northern Mindanao, and the BARMM. It is responsible for the defense o ...

chief Carlito Galvez Jr. confirmed deaths of all seven Maute brothers in December 2017.

Early life and education

Siblings Omar and Abdullah Maute are descended from a

Maranao The Maranao people (Maranao: mәranaw Filipino: ''Maranaw''), also spelled Meranao, Maranaw, and Mëranaw, is the term used by the Philippine government to refer to the southern indigenous people who are the "people of the lake", a predomi ...

warrior clan based in

Butig Butig, officially the Municipality of Butig (Maranao: ''Dalm a Butig''), is a 6th class municipality in the province of Lanao del Sur, Philippines. According to the 2020 census, it has a population of 22,768 people. This ancient and royal town ...

Lanao del Sur Lanao del Sur ( tl, Timog Lanao; Maranao and ilp, Pagabagatan Ranao), officially the Province of Lanao del Sur, is a province in the Philippines located in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM). The capital is the city of ...

, the town where they were born and spent their childhood. They were born to Cayamora and Farhana Maute. The brothers had worked in the

Middle East The Middle East ( ar, الشرق الأوسط, ISO 233: ) is a geopolitical region commonly encompassing Arabian Peninsula, Arabia (including the Arabian Peninsula and Bahrain), Anatolia, Asia Minor (Asian part of Turkey except Hatay Pro ...

Overseas Filipino Workers Overseas Filipino Worker (OFW) is a term often used to refer to Filipino migrant workers, people with Filipino citizenship who reside in another country for a limited period of employment. The number of these workers was roughly 1.77 million be ...

. While working for secular schools in

Syria Syria ( ar, سُورِيَا or سُورِيَة, translit=Sūriyā), officially the Syrian Arab Republic ( ar, الجمهورية العربية السورية, al-Jumhūrīyah al-ʻArabīyah as-Sūrīyah), is a Western Asian country loc ...

and the

United Arab Emirates The United Arab Emirates (UAE; ar, اَلْإِمَارَات الْعَرَبِيَة الْمُتَحِدَة ), or simply the Emirates ( ar, الِْإمَارَات ), is a country in Western Asia (The Middle East). It is located at th ...

, the brothers studied

Islamic theology Schools of Islamic theology are various Islamic schools and branches in different schools of thought regarding ''ʿaqīdah'' (creed). The main schools of Islamic Theology include the Qadariyah, Falasifa, Jahmiyya, Murji'ah, Muʿtazila, Bati ...

. Abdullah reportedly was educated in

Jordan Jordan ( ar, الأردن; tr. ' ), officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan,; tr. ' is a country in Western Asia. It is situated at the crossroads of Asia, Africa, and Europe, within the Levant region, on the East Bank of the Jordan Rive ...

Militant activity

MILF

Philippine military The Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) ( fil, Sandatahang Lakas ng Pilipinas) are the military forces of the Philippines. It consists of three main service branches; the Army, the Air Force, and the Navy (including the Marine Corps). The P ...

sources state that the siblings' father, Cayamora Maute, was a senior official of the

Moro Islamic Liberation Front The Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF; ar, ''Jabhat Taḥrīr Moro al-ʾIslāmiyyah'') is a group based in Mindanao seeking an autonomous region of the Moro people from the central government. The group has a presence in the Bangsamoro r ...

(MILF). After the MILF began to engage in peace negotiations with the

Philippine government The Government of the Philippines ( fil, Pamahalaan ng Pilipinas) has three interdependent branches: the legislative, executive, and judicial branches. The Philippines is governed as a unitary state under a presidential representative and d ...

, the brothers criticized the MILF leadership and pledged allegiance to

ISIS Isis (; ''Ēse''; ; Meroitic: ''Wos'' 'a''or ''Wusa''; Phoenician: 𐤀𐤎, romanized: ʾs) was a major goddess in ancient Egyptian religion whose worship spread throughout the Greco-Roman world. Isis was first mentioned in the Old Kingd ...

Maute group

The Mautes, according to their relatives, later established connections with

Ameril Umbra Kato Ameril Umbra Kato (18 May 1946 – 14 April 2015) was the founder of the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF), a group which seceded from the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF). He joined the MILF in or around 1985, after he graduated from ...

, the founder of the

Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters The Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF), also known as the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Movement, is an Islamist militant organization based in Mindanao, the Philippines. It is a smaller player in the overall Moro insurgency in the Phili ...

(BIFF). The siblings reportedly sent representatives to Kato after the BIFF leader suffered a hypertensive stroke which rendered the left portion of his body paralyzed. After forging ties with Kato, the Mautes established the

. Five other brothers also became involved in the group according to the Philippine military.

Battle of Marawi and death

On June 10, 2017, during the

Marawi crisis The siege of Marawi ( fil, Pagkubkob sa Marawi), also known as the Marawi crisis (), and the Battle of Marawi (), was a five-month-long armed conflict in Marawi, Philippines, that started on May 23, 2017, between Philippine government securit ...

, the

Philippine Army The Philippine Army (PA) ( Tagalog: ''Hukbong Katihan ng Pilipinas''; in literal English: ''Army of the Ground of the Philippines''; in literal Spanish: ''Ejército de la Tierra de la Filipinas'') is the main, oldest and largest branch of the ...

claimed that the Maute brothers had been killed in a firefight, although details were not available. On September 4, 2017, the military announced that Abdullah was killed in August 7, 2017 in an airstrike. They cited ISIL sympathizers proclaiming his death as an act of martyrdom on the social media platform

. He was referred to as "Sheik Al Miyahad Abu Al Hassan", the name he was known to have used within the ISIL network. In September 2017, the military stated that

Omar ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb ( ar, عمر بن الخطاب, also spelled Omar, ) was the second Rashidun caliph, ruling from August 634 until his assassination in 644. He succeeded Abu Bakr () as the second caliph of the Rashidun Caliphate o ...

alone among the seven Maute brothers remained alive, as the other six were killed in battle.

chief Lt. Gen. Carlito Galvez Jr. confirmed in December 2017 that all seven Maute brothers had been killed by the Philippine Army.

Personal life

His mother, Ominta Romato Maute, also known as Farhana Maute, has been described by some sources as the financier of the Maute group's activities, providing logistics and recruiting fighters. She was arrested on June 9, 2017, in

. Her husband, Cayamora Maute, was arrested the day before in

Davao City Davao City, officially the City of Davao ( ceb, Dakbayan sa Dabaw; ), is a first class highly urbanized city in the Davao Region, Philippines. The city has a total land area of , making it the largest city in the Philippines in terms of lan ...

. Cayamora Maute died in August 2017 on the way to Taguig-Pateros District Hospital after experiencing difficulty in breathing.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Maute, Abdullah 20th-century births 2017 deaths Filipino Islamists People from Lanao del Sur Moro conflict Leaders of Islamic terror groups Year of birth missing Filipino Muslims