3 Maute men slain in Lanao clash

PANTAR, LANAO DEL NORTE—Three suspected members of the Maute terror group, one of them an inmate who bolted the Marawi City jail at the height of the siege there on May 23, were killed in a clash with government soldiers here on Thursday.

Senior Insp. Mohammad Doro, Pantar town police chief, identified Omar Mustapha Daiser, a resident of Barangay Lumba Punod here, among the three men killed in a clash with members of the 4th Mechanized Battalion, who were patrolling the village.

Daiser was reportedly one of 100 inmates sprung by members of the Maute group when they laid siege to sections of Marawi City in May last year.

Doro said the two slain suspects had yet to be identified.

The military and the police said some Maute group members who fled to different Lanao del Sur towns had been regrouping. —REPORTS FROM DIVINA SUSON AND RICHEL UMEL