UPDATED) - The Philippine National Police confirmed Thursday that the top leader of the pro-ISIS

terror group Ansar al-Khilafah in the Philippines (AKP) is dead.

Based on initial reports from the PNP, an inter-agency force led by the National Intelligence
Coordinating Council conducted an operation against Mohammad Jaafar Maguid at Angel Beach
Resort in Barangay Kitagas, Kiamba, Sarangani province on Thursday.

According to the report, the operation "led to the death" of Mohammad Jaafar Maguid alias
"Tokboy."

Also arrested during the operation were three of Maguid's supposed cohorts: Matahata Dialawe
Arboleda, Ismael Sahak alias Mael, and Morhaban Veloso alias Bugoy.

In a press conference Thursday evening, Dela Rosa said that assorted weapons were recovered from
the suspects, and a Toyota Wigo they had been using.

Two handheld grenades were found on the suspects, while the vehicle contained two rifles, one hand
grenade, 18 short magazines, two plastiques (plastic explosives), and 16 steel magazines.

Also recovered in the vehicle were eight long magazines, 1 plastique, 7 steel magazines, 2
bandoliers, and assorted documents, Dela Rosa said.

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Maguid's death also spells the death of his group Ansar Khalifa Philippines, feared for having
the closest connection, among local terror groups, to ISIS fighters in Syria

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MANILA, Philippines – The hunt for Mohammad Jaafar Sabiwang Maguid or "Tokboy"
ended on January 5, 2017, when the leader of the local terrorist group believed to have
the "closest links" to Islamic State (ISIS) fighters in Syria was killed in a police
operation.

The police's most wanted person in Sarangani, Maguid was a bomb maker trained by
Malaysian terrorist Marwan who was killed in the infamous January 2015 Mamasapano
operation in Central Mindanao.

The local police tagged Maguid as being behind various killings and instances of
robbery, extortion, and arson, among other crimes, in the Soccsksargen region,
particularly in Sarangani, General Santos, and Sultan Kudarat. He had a P300,000
($6,000*) bounty on his head.

A high-ranking intelligence officer said Maguid's death also spelled the death of his
group Ansar Khalifa Philippines (AKP), one of the local terrorist groups that pledged
allegiance to ISIS. (There is no agreement on how to spell the group's name. It is also
called Ansar al-Khalifa, Ansarul Khilafa, and Ansar Khilafa.)
Maguid's death means that AKP is one less group to worry about for Philippine security
officials, who have watched the pro-ISIS local terror groups forge a tactical alliance in
the wake of pronouncements of declaring a wilayat or province in the southern
Philippines. (READ: ISIS to declare a province in Mindanao?)