Tag Archives: Islamic Extremists

Duterte urges Congress to pass bill for self-rule in Muslim region

Philippines' President Rodrigo Duterte Rodrigo Duterte gestures during a news conference on the sidelines of the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) summit in Pasay, metro Manila, Philippines, November 14, 2017.

MANILA (Reuters) – Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte on Thursday urged Congress to pass a bill granting self-rule to the country’s Muslim minority, warning that its collapse would see separatist rebels abandon a peace process and declare war again.

The largest Muslim rebel group, Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), signed a peace deal with the government in 2014 to end nearly 50 years of conflict that has killed more than 120,000 people and displaced 2 million.

Central to resolving that is the passage of the Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL), which would create a new autonomous area in the Mindanao region offering more political and economic power. Duterte is a staunch supporter of the plan.

“I am urging everybody to understand, it’s about time the historical injustices committed to them corrected,” Duterte said during the launch of a bank for Filipino overseas workers.

“If nothing happens to the BBL, there will be war in Mindanao.”

He said he could not control rebel groups if they take up arms again and seek an independent state in the south.

The Muslim parts of Mindanao are already fraught with security problems and a collapse of the peace process with the MILF would be one of the biggest setbacks of Duterte’s presidency.

Martial law is in place in Mindanao until the end of the year to allow the military to tackle rebel groups loyal to Islamic State, some of which held parts of southern Marawi City through five months of war with the government last year.

The MILF is bitterly opposed to Islamic extremists and has been collaborating with government troops to fight a radical faction of the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters, which has pledged allegiance to Islamic State.

He said he wanted the BBL passed before Congress focuses its attention on changing the constitution to create a federal system, one of his key election platforms.

(Reporting by Manuel Mogato; Editing by Martin Petty)

Philippine troops find stash of banknotes as fighters pull back

A government soldier carries a box containing 52.2 million pesos ($1.06 million) cash seized from a vault in a house previously controlled by militants in the Marawi city, Philippines June 6, 2017. REUTERS/Neil Jerome Morales

By Neil Jerome Morales

MARAWI CITY, Philippines (Reuters) – Philippines troops found bundles of banknotes and cheques worth about $1.6 million abandoned by Islamist militants holed up in Marawi City, a discovery the military said on Tuesday was evidence that the fighters were increasingly penned in.

Fighters linked to Islamic State have been cornered in a built-up sliver of the southern lakeside town after two weeks of intense combat. The military said that over the past 24 hours it had taken several buildings that had been defended by snipers.

In one house they found a vault loaded with neat stacks of money worth 52.2 million pesos ($1.06 million) and cheques made out for cash worth 27 million pesos ($550,000).

“The recovery of those millions of cash indicates that they are running because the government troops are pressing in and focusing on destroying them,” Marines Operations Officer Rowan Rimas told a news conference in the town as helicopters on machinegun runs buzzed overhead.

Black smoke poured from an area near one of the town’s mosques and the lake after bombings by OV-10 attack aircraft and artillery fire from the ground.

The battle for Marawi has raised concerns that the ultra-radical Islamic State, on a back foot in Syria and Iraq, is building a regional base on the Philippine island of Mindanao.

Officials said that, among the several hundred militants who seized the town on May 23, there were about 40 foreigners from neighboring Indonesia and Malaysia but also from India, Saudi Arabia, Morocco and Chechnya.

The fighters prepared for a long siege, stockpiling arms and food in tunnels, basements, mosques and madrasas, or Islamic religious schools, military officials say. The Philippines is largely Christian, but Marawi City is overwhelmingly Muslim.

Progress in the military campaign has been slow because hundreds of civilians are still trapped or being held hostage in the urban heart of the town, officials have said.

“In a few days, we will we will be able to get everything, we will be able to clear the entire Marawi City,” armed forces Chief of Staff General Eduaro Año said in a radio interview.

‘MAYBE THEY WATCH WAR MOVIES’

Fighting erupted in Marawi after a bungled raid aimed at capturing Isnilon Hapilon, whom Islamic State proclaimed as its “emir” of Southeast Asia last year after he pledged allegiance to the group. The U.S. State Department has offered a bounty of up to $5 million for his arrest.

On Monday, President Rodrigo Duterte offered a bounty of 10 million pesos ($200,000) to anyone who “neutralized” Hapilon, and 5 million pesos for each of the two brothers who founded the Maute group, one of four factions that banded together to take the town.

Police on Tuesday arrested a man who identified himself as the father of the Maute brothers. He was in a vehicle along with other members of his family that was stopped at a checkpoint in Davao City, 260 km (160 miles) to the southeast.

“As a patriarch and the father of the Maute brothers … I guess he can still persuade his sons to stop the fighting in Marawi and once and for all surrender to the government,” regional military spokesman Brigadier General Gilbert Gapay told the news conference.

Armed forces chief Año said about 100 Maute militants were holding out in Marawi, and the military was checking a report that one of the brothers, Omarkhayam, had been killed in an air strike.

Duterte, who launched a ruthless campaign against drugs after coming to power a year ago, has said the Marawi fighters were financed by drug lords in Mindanao, an island the size of South Korea that has suffered for decades from banditry and insurgencies.

Jo-Ar Herrera, a military spokesman, said the discovery of the banknotes and cheques was evidence the militants had links to international terrorist groups. However, he said an investigation was needed to establish the facts.

It is possible that the money came from a bank that was raided on the first day of the siege. Herrera told Reuters last week that a branch of Landbank had been attacked and he had heard that one of its vaults was opened.

A four-hour ceasefire to evacuate residents trapped in the town was interrupted by gunfire on Sunday, leaving some 500-600 inside with dwindling supplies of food and water.

Officials say that 1,469 civilians have been rescued.

The latest numbers for militants killed in the battle is 120, along with 39 security personnel. The authorities have put the civilian death toll at between 20 and 38.

Asked to describe the fighting skills and training of the militants in the town, Major Rimas said: “They have snipers and their positions are well defended. Maybe they watch war movies a lot, or action pictures a lot so they borrowed some tactics from it.”

(Additional reporting by Karen Lema in MANILA; Writing by John Chalmers; Editing by Robert Birsel)

Philippines urges Islamist rebels to surrender as battle enters eighth day

A Philippine Marine fires a weapon towards the stronghold of Maute group in Marawi City in southern Philippines May 30, 2017. REUTERS/Erik De Castro

By Tom Allard

MARAWI, Philippines (Reuters) – The Philippine military urged Islamist militants occupying a southern city to turn themselves in on Tuesday, the eighth day of a push by security forces using armored vehicles and firing rockets from helicopters to eliminate the gunmen.

The government says it is close to retaking Marawi from the Islamic State-linked Maute group, which seized parts of the city after a failed attempt by security forces to capture Isnilon Hapilon, the militants’ so-called emir of Southeast Asia.

“We call on the remaining terrorists to surrender while there is an opportunity,” a military spokesman, Brigadier-General Restituto Padilla, told reporters.

As helicopters circled the lakeside city where smoke billowed out of some buildings, troops cleared rebel positions amid explosions and automatic gunfire, moving house by house and street by street.

More than 100 people have been killed, most of them militants, according to the military, and most of the city’s residents have fled.

A Catholic priest held captive by the militants with a dozen other civilians appealed to President Rodrigo Duterte to consider their plight and stop the military operation.

Father Teresito “Chito” Soganub, vicar general of Marawi City, and the others were abducted in a cathedral last week.

“We are asking your help to please give what your enemies are asking for,” the priest said on a video clip shown on a Telegram channel used by Islamic State.

“We still want to live for another day, a month and a few years, please consider us Mr President,” he said.

A politician involved in efforts to evacuate residents, Zia Alonto Adiong, said authorities had cleared 85 percent of the city but reclaiming the rest would be a challenge because they were dense urban areas with trapped civilians.

“There’s an intensifying military operation that’s going on,” Adiong told a media briefing.

Though most people have left, thousands are stranded, worried they could be intercepted by militants if they tried to flee.

‘LIVE ANOTHER DAY’

Martin Thalmann, deputy head of delegation of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), said he tried, but failed to convince Islamic State affiliated insurgents and government forces to halt the violence so it can deliver aid.

“It’s so intense, it’s not possible,” Thalmann told reporters, referring to the fighting.

“There’s still a lot of people in there and of course it’s a concern that they suffer under this shelling and we wonder if all the precautions are taken.”

Air strikes were aimed at “specific targets of resistance to protect our troops and hasten clearing of the city”, Padilla said, adding that “collateral damage” was being prevented.

Nearly 85,000 displaced people are staying in 38 shelter areas outside Marawi.

Leaders of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, a separatist Muslim guerrilla group that has been in talks with the government, said they had agreed to help distribute aid after they met the president for talks.

Duterte had appealed on the weekend to rebel forces to become “soldiers of the republic” and unite to defeat the hardline Maute and allied Abu Sayyaf groups.

The Maute’s ability to fight for so long will add to fears that Islamic State’s ideology is spreading in the southern Philippines and it could become a haven for militants from Southeast Asia and beyond.

Malaysians and Indonesians were among the rebels killed.

The government believes the Maute carried out their assault before the Muslim holy month of Ramadan to capture the attention of Islamic State and earn recognition as a regional affiliate.

In the video footage, the captured priest was standing on a deserted street with ruins around him and the sound of gunfire in the background.

“They simply are not asking for anything, just to withdraw your forces … and to stop the air strikes, your air attacks, and stop the cannons,” Soganub said.

Marawi Bishop Edwin dela Pena confirmed to Reuters that it was Soganub in the video but declined to comment any further.

Soganub, wearing a black shirt and trousers, said the militants had the right to practice their faith and enforce Islamic laws in the city.

Padilla said the military was aware of the video.

“This is pure propaganda. The Maute group is using this to stop our clearing operations,” Padilla said.

Padilla said he was confident the militants would not harm the priest because they wanted to use him to gain concessions.

(Additional reporting by Erik de Castro in MARAWI and Manuel Mogato in MANILA; Writing by Karen Lema; Editing by Robert Birsel)

TruNews: Islamic Extremists Threaten Civilians and Students in Yemen

TRUNEWS – Islamist extremists have hit the streets in Aden threatening civilians and students.

The militants burst into a university telling students they have until Thursday to segregate men and women into different classrooms. The men also charged into stores demanding female employees to cover up and threatened families on a beach.

The city is at risk of falling to the terror groups, which also includes a dangerous sect of al-Qaeda, the Aden-Abyan Islamic Army, Daesh and ISIS. Houthi rebels were forced out in July, leaving a vacuum in leadership.