page_title: 2013 Lahad Datu standoff
section_title: Operation Daulat
hierarchical_section_title: 2013 Lahad Datu standoff / Military operations / Operation Daulat
caption_attribution_description: Subang Jaya 13/03/2013. Soldiers give a last respect to death body in ops Daulat. Pbt Ahmad Hurairah Ismail death during the ops Daulat in Lahad Datu and Pbt Ahmad Farhan Ruslan death in accident convoi from Kota Kinabalu to Lahad Datu at TUDM Subang. Pix Firdaus Latif
context_page_description: The 2013 Lahad Datu standoff was a military conflict that started on 11 February 2013 and fully ended on 24 March 2013. The conflict began when 235 militants, some of whom were armed, arrived by boats in Lahad Datu District, Sabah, Malaysia from Simunul island, Tawi-Tawi, in the southern Philippines. The group, calling themselves the "Royal Security Forces of the Sultanate of Sulu and North Borneo", was sent by Jamalul Kiram III, one of the claimants to the throne of the Sultanate of Sulu.
  Kiram III stated that their objective was to assert the unresolved territorial claim of the Philippines to eastern Sabah. Malaysian security forces surrounded the village of Tanduo in Lahad Datu, where the group had gathered and, after several weeks of negotiations and deadlines for the intruders to withdraw, especially after the killing of Malaysian police members, launched a major operation to flush out the militants. At the end of the standoff, around fifty-six militants were killed, together with six civilians and ten Malaysian security force personnel. The rest of the militants were either captured, or escaped back to the Philippines.
context_section_description: On 5 March 2013, Royal Malaysian Air Force fighter jets, reported as F/A-18 and Hawk fighters, bombed the Kiram followers' hide-out. Continuous explosions were being heard in Lahad Datu as the police and army as well as commando forces moved in against the gunmen who were reportedly returning fire. In a Kuala Lumpur rally, Prime Minister Najib said, "We started with air strike by jet fighters of Royal Malaysian Air Forces, followed by mortar strike; and as I'm speaking, the army and police forces, along with other members (of the security forces) following behind, are taking action to arrest and destroy the group which has breached the nation's sovereignty".
  According to IGP Ismail Omar and other police sources, the army and police began mopping-up operations codenamed "Ops Sulu" now "Ops Daulat" (Operation Sovereignty). It was believed that rebel leader Agbimuddin Kiram and several of his followers managed to escape the security cordon around Kampung Tanduo. The search for these men was carried out by the joint Malaysian police and army taskforce in the surrounding farmland and FELDA plantations. The Malaysian troops recovered 13 bodies of suspected Kiram followers in Felda Sahabat. Malaysian Defence Minister Zahid Hamidi was unsure on whether the deaths were due to the assault on Semporna or from Lahad Datu.
  On 9 March 2013, Malaysian Home Minister Hishammuddin Hussein said that "Ops Daulat", which aimed to flush out the Sulu gunmen, would end only when no intruders were left in Sabah, because the gunmen had not laid down their arms unconditionally. The Malaysian security forces maintained tight security cordons around the operation area and those with no documents such as MyKad were detained for further investigation.
  Tanduo village was declared secured by Malaysian security forces on 11 March after a week of bombardments and firefights, with the bodies of 22 Sulu gunmen recovered by security forces from the village as the fighting ended. Meanwhile, the security forces engaged in the final stages of sweeping a neighbouring village in which a firefight left a Malaysian army soldier dead. Private Ahmad Hurairah Ismail was killed along with three Sulu gunmen. Another soldier, Private Ahmad Farhan Ruslan was also killed in a road accident near Bandar Cendera-Wasih in the Felda Sahabat area en route from the town of Lahad Datu. The soldier was believed to be part of an army logistics convoy.
  The clash ended on 24 March while Operation Daulat was replaced by the Eastern Sabah Security Command (ESSCOM) on 29 June. Sabah Chief Minister, Datuk Seri Musa Aman said ESSCOM was now responsible to enforce security arrangements and undertake operations in the Ops Daulat area. The zone would cover all operations from northern Kudat to south-eastern Tawau to ensure Sabah's eastern sea borders were safe from any threats.
caption: Malaysian officers pay their respects to fallen comrades, Privates Ahmad Hurairah Ismail and Ahmad Farhan Ruslan, at Subang Air Force Base.
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