The Straits Times reported today that Mahmud, who helped finance the ongoing siege by extremists in Marawi City, was believed to have been killed in fighting there.
The ST quoted General Eduardo Año of the Philippine military as saying that Mahmud died on June 7, after being wounded in the fighting in Marawi last month.
Año, citing intelligence shared by foreign counterparts, told the ST that Mahmud was suspected of channelling more than 30 million pesos (RM2.6 million) from the Islamic State group to acquire firearms, food and other supplies for the attack in Marawi.
The report said Malaysian counter-terrorism authorities could not confirm if Mahmud had died as his body had not been found. However, they confirmed that Mahmud had been raising funds for the terror group.
Mahmud, also known as Abu Handzalah, was said to have assumed a leadership role among the Maute militants in the Philippines, who have links to IS.
Omarkhayam Maute, who, with his brother Abdullah, formed the group that supplied the bulk of gunmen who stormed Marawi a month ago, is also believed to have been killed.
According to the ST report, Lieutenant-Colonel Jo-Ar Herrera, the spokesman for the Philippine’s Task Force Marawi, told reporters they had confirmed information that Maute had died.
If confirmed, the report said, Mahmud’s death would be a blow to efforts by IS to establish a foothold in the war-torn southern island group of Mindanao, and this region.
The ST report said he was believed to have been designated as a successor of Isnilon Hapilon, named as head of IS’ Southeast Asia wing.
Mahmud and his right-hand man Mohd Najib Husen, who had been killed in the Philippines much earlier, were identified as the chief recruiters in Malaysia for IS.
Mahmud was also responsible for training and sending militants to fight in Syria and Iraq. Among those he had recruited was Malaysia’s first suicide bomber, Ahmad Tarmimi Maliki.
He himself had received training at an al-Qaeda camp in Afghanistan under Osama bin Laden while studying at Pakistan’s Islamabad Islamic University in the late 1990s.
He returned to Malaysia to lecture at Universiti Malaya.
After being exposed as a militant by Malaysian police in 2014, he fled to the Philippines.
Mindanao island was placed under martial law by Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte after a surprise attack on Marawi on May 23 by Maute and his IS militants.
Almost 200,000 residents of Marawi have been evacuated but more than 500 civilians are said to be still trapped there or held hostage. Government forces are still trying to dislodge the terrorists.
The seizure of Marawi by fighters allied to IS has raised alarm bells in neighbouring countries, including Malaysia, with the authorities on the alert for spillover effects of the fighting.