LANAO DEL SUR PROVINCE — Philippine forces killed Amerol Mangoranca and nine other suspected Muslim militants in an hourlong gunbattle in Marantao village in Lanao del Sur province on April 17, 2026. There were no government casualties in the clash, the deadliest in the southern Philippines so far in 2026.

Suspected members of the Dawlah Islamiya-Maute opened fire on police officers and army troops who were attempting to serve arrest warrants for the group's commander for murder and other alleged crimes, according to police Maj. Gen. Robert Alexander Morico. Four of the 10 killed were women.

Government forces seized four rifles, a pistol, a grenade and bomb parts at the scene. An infant found at the battle site was given unspecified medical treatment.

"Our forces have struck a decisive blow and we will continue forward until enduring peace is fully secured," said Army 1st Infantry Division commander Maj. Gen. Yegor Rey Barroquillo Jr. "It is justice served for every fallen soldier, every grieving family and every community that suffered under terror," he said.

Mangoranca and his fighters had aligned themselves with the Islamic State group in the past and were blamed for recent guerrilla attacks, military officials said. An ambush attributed to the group in January killed four soldiers in Lanao del Norte province.

Philippine forces have been fighting remaining rebels in a separatist insurgency in the southern Philippines. In 2014, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, which had thousands of armed guerrillas, signed a Muslim autonomy deal with the government. Several smaller armed groups refused to participate in the peace talks and continued to carry out sporadic guerrilla attacks seeking a separate Muslim state.

Decades of on-and-off fighting in the southern Philippines left tens of thousands of combatants and civilians dead, displaced large numbers of rural villagers and stunted development in a resource-rich region with some of the country's poorest areas.