Six soldiers and at least one jihadist were killed in the southern Philippines, a military spokesman said today, citing fighting as part of operations against rebels authorities suspect of carrying out an attack on Catholics in December.

The clashes took place yesterday Sunday in a jungle on the island of Mindanao, Philippine military spokesman Colonel Louis Dema-Ala told AFP.

“This is part of the operations against ‘Daulah Islamiyya’ (a.k.a. ‘Islamic State’). Unfortunately, we suffered losses,” he said.

Six members of the armed forces were killed and four others were injured, he said. A gunman, who he said was a jihadist, was also killed.

The Daulah Islamiyya group is one of several small armed Islamist groups that have pledged allegiance to IS. The jihadist organization claimed responsibility for the December 3, 2023 bombing of a Catholic service in Marawi that left 4 dead and dozens injured.

The military has confirmed that 10 members of Daulah Islamiya were killed last month, including the alleged leader of the suicide bombers, Gaddafi Mibesa.

In 2014, Manila signed a peace deal with the country’s largest rebel group, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, ending its bloody armed insurgency. But there are still small groups of Muslim militants who oppose the peace deal, including IS-linked jihadists.