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Philippines War on ISIS, Abu Sayaf, Maute: News & Discussions

China shall sell CH-4 drone to Philippine. It's a simple and cheap way to rout out terrorist camp and hunt their leader while transporting. Like how Iraq army turn the tides against IS in initial stages of retake of Mosul.
 
What's the native religion of Philippines?
Before Catholicism and Islam came here, it varied - some are animist while some have sort-of Hindu influence while some have a religion that may have been nearly wiped out by Islam and Catholicism.

I don´t mean to insult the PH army, but if you just need to read what the US media write about your army. especially after Durtete publicly insults America, for example Forbes. despite the fact, PH needs America for external defense. anyway, if PH army after 50 years is still unable to defeat the communist rebels, and other separatist, terrorist groups, how will you rate your army?

Insufficiently equipped due to politicians focusing more on getting wealthy.

And let the Americans say what they want, it is insulting but they have the right to freely express what they think...and we Filipinos have the freedom to have both positive and negative thoughts about the Americans.
 
Marawi fighting: Foreign fighters 'among militants' in Philippine city

"What is happening in Mindanao is no longer a rebellion of Filipino citizens. It has transmogrified into an invasion by foreign fighters," Solicitor General Jose Calida, the government's chief lawyer, told reporters in the southern city of Davao.

He said Malaysians, Indonesians, Singaporeans and "other foreign jihadists" were fighting in Marawi, one of the biggest Muslim cities in the mainly Catholic Philippines with about 200,000 residents.

Philippine military spokesman Brigadier-General Restituto Padilla said six foreign fighters are believed to have been killed in the Marawi fighting, including Malaysians, Indonesians and another nationality which he did not specify.

The fighting erupted on Tuesday after security forces raided a house where they believed Isnilon Hapilon, a leader of the infamous Abu Sayyaf kidnap-for-ransom gang and Philippine head of IS, was hiding.

The raid went spectacularly wrong as dozens of gunmen emerged to repel the security forces, then went on a rampage across the city while flying black IS flags.

Authorities said ending the crisis was proving extremely hard because the militants were moving nimbly through homes, had planted bombs in the streets, and were holding hostages.

They said militants had also occupied higher ground in the city, enabling them to slow down or stop assaults from the security forces.
 
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Philippines Government makes assault on Maute insurgents
Updated about 11 hours ago

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Government troops are engaging insurgents in Marawi City with heavy gunfire.
Reuters: Romeo Ranoco

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-05-25/8559174
 
Philippines 'Dirty' Duterte facing ‘same ISIS dynamic’ as Assad in Syria
Published time: 25 May, 2017
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Someone has unleashed ISIS, which forces the Filipino government to come down hard, to declare martial law, and then the international organizations will demonize Duterte, Patrick Henningsen, Executive Editor of 21st Century Wire.com, told RT.
Fighters linked to ISIS went on a rampage in the Philippines' city of Marawi. The country's President Rodrigo Duterte has declared martial law there.
At the end of the day he is in the exact same situation, very similar situation that Bashar Assad in Syria was in early on in the sort of the terrorist takeover of that country in the early days of the FSA, and then Al-Nusra Front, and then later ISIS. So he has to balance out this public relations issue – is he too heavy-handed? Most people would say looking at Syria that you can’t be heavy-handed enough when it comes to dealing with ISIS. So we’ll see how much progress he makes on the island in the next few weeks.

RT: With terrorism apparently spreading around the world, don't you think Duterte-style harsh measures should be an option now?

PH: What is really interesting if you look at Syria, as the test case, we just came back from Syria on a one-month fact-finding mission. If there was any criticism of Assad – especially early on in 2011-2012, but especially in the beginning of the crisis in Syria – the criticism from Syrians would have been: “He wasn’t heavy-handed enough.” You can sort of look at that situation and Duterte is probably looking at that situation in Syria, and then taking a sort of more tougher tack because if this gets out of hand, if he starts losing cities, towns, provinces or governorates to terrorist control, then you have a really big problem on your hands. There is also this issue of military equipment. Are they ready to deal with that size of a problem? Quite possibly not. And if they are, they will need to be able to sort of rearm and modernize some paramilitary aspects of the Philippine forces, which they may be or not may not be ready for. So going in hard, going in strong in the beginning, might seem like a better option now after looking at what has happened in Syria over the last six years.



RT: Human Rights Watch [HRW] has already called on Duterte to ensure the rights of civilians would be protected under the law. Do you think the watchdog is being subjective? Would it happen with any other country?

PH: HRW took the same tack with the government in Syria and President Bashar Assad for the last five or six years. Here we have the Philippines, geopolitical foe for the moment of the US, of the West. It’s getting the same treatment from the NGO complex, led by people like HRW and Amnesty International, who will then sort of wage a public relations war against governments that maybe aren’t friendly at the moment to the US.

Certainly, that is what we’ve seen with Syria. Someone unleashes ISIS - if this is indeed ISIS in the Philippines - someone has unleashed ISIS. Then the government is forced to come down hard, to declare martial law, and then the international organizations will demonize this government. So this is an exact same formula as what we saw in Syria, albeit on a smaller scale, on a smaller level. Essentially, we’re looking at the same dynamic, and especially with the negative public relations side that the Philippine government is looking at, just like Syria went through.
RT: With terrorism as his new target, do you think Duterte will receive much international support, given that his war on drugs was condemned by many and called too brutal?

Patrick Henningsen: This President is already under intense scrutiny by the sort of wider international community, if you will, and specifically by the US. He has sort of gone at loggerheads with Washington on more than one occasion. This is a bit of a tight spot, a bit of a Catch-22 for Duterte in the Philippines because he will already have been somewhat demonized for his heavy-handed approach to organized crime and the organized drug trade that has affected his country. So comparisons will be made to Ferdinand Marcos. This is bit of public relations issue for this President and this government. It will have to be ironed out.

https://www.rt.com/op-edge/389699-philippines-isis-martial-law/


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Philippines crisis ‘transmogrified into invasion by foreign terrorists’
Published time: 26 May, 2017


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The Maute group confronting the Philippine army in Marawi City is no longer considered a local terrorist organization as it has been reinforced by jihadists of Malaysian, Indonesian and “other nationalities,” the country’s authorities have announced.
“Before it was just a local terrorist group. But now they have subscribed to the ideology of ISIS. They want to make Mindanao as part of the caliphate,” Solicitor General Jose Calida told a news conference, according to Reuters.

READ MORE: Russia & Philippines sign defense cooperation agreement, reaffirm unity against terrorism

He added that Indonesians and Malaysians are among the Islamist radicals who are fighting the army. Meanwhile, an army spokesman said six foreigners were killed in Mindanao on Thursday, including militants of Malaysian, Indonesian and "other nationalities."

“What’s happening in Mindanao is no longer a rebellion of Filipino citizens” but “has transmogrified into an invasion by foreign terrorists who heeded the clarion call of the ISIS to go to the Philippines if they find difficulty in going to Iraq or Syria,” Calida added, as cited by InterAksyon news.

The terrorist group is aiming to create an Islamic State “province” in Mindanao and will target anyone to achieve their objective, Calida warned.

“People they consider as infidels, whether Christians or Muslims, are also targets of opportunity,” he said. “What it worrisome is that ISIS has radicalized a number of Filipino Muslim youth.”

Duterte deploys commandos, attack helicopters to retake Marawi from ISIS-linked fighters (VIDEO) https://t.co/A2X8rtGq0Z

— RT (@RT_com) May 25, 2017
On Thursday, Philippines’ Western Mindanao Command (WESMINCOM) announced that, since Tuesday, at least 31 fighters of the IS-linked Maute group were killed in Marawi City.

“As of this report, 31 terrorists were already neutralized and 6 high-powered firearms were recovered by the troops,” said Brig. Gen. Rolly Bautista, head of Joint Task Force ZamPeLan.

At least 13 government troops and police officers lost their lives since Tuesday.

“Our troops are doing deliberate operations in areas we believe are still occupied or infested with the terrorists’ presence. I specifically ordered our soldiers to locate and destroy these terrorists as soon as possible,”Bautista added.

On Tuesday night, President Rodrigo Duterte placed the entire island of Mindanao under martial law for 60 days after battles between government troops and the Maute in Marawi escalated. On Wednesday, Duterte warned that he will not hesitate to declare martial law throughout the entire country if terrorism spills beyond Mindanao.

The Philippines leader also promised to resign if extremists prove him incapable of maintaining peace in his country.

“As president, if I cannot confront them, I will resign,”
Duterte said Wednesday. “If I am incompetent and incapable of keeping order in this country, let me step down and give the job to somebody else.”
 
Battle for Marawi City intensifies


The fighting in Marawi City continues, with government force engaged in fierce battles with members of the Maute terror group in various parts of the city. At one point, the hostilities came close to the Army headquarters in the city. - The World Tonight, ANC, May 25, 2017
 
Kill them!
Battle for Marawi City intensifies


The fighting in Marawi City continues, with government force engaged in fierce battles with members of the Maute terror group in various parts of the city. At one point, the hostilities came close to the Army headquarters in the city. - The World Tonight, ANC, May 25, 2017
good news!
 
Before Catholicism and Islam came here, it varied - some are animist while some have sort-of Hindu influence while some have a religion that may have been nearly wiped out by Islam and Catholicism.

The Hindu-Budha era were brought by Majapahit empire to the southside of Philipphines that day.

According to the Nagarakretagama (Desawarñana) written in 1365, Majapahit was an empire of 98 tributaries, stretching from Sumatra to New Guinea; consisting of present-day Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia, Brunei, southern Thailand, Sulu Archipelago, Philippines, and East Timor.

gbr4.jpg
 
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DAMASCUS, SYRIA (6:00 P.M.) – With fierce clashes ongoing in the contested Philippine city of Marawi, ISIS militants destroyed a handful of armored vehicles in its southern countryside on Thursday and also burned down an army barracks in the area.

Meanwhile, the Philippine Army sent a fresh batch of reinforcements to Marawi to replenish its ranks after some 80 government troops have been killed since Tuesday: Source Syrian Perspective)
 
ISIS-ambush-in-Marawi-696x928.jpg

DAMASCUS, SYRIA (6:00 P.M.) – With fierce clashes ongoing in the contested Philippine city of Marawi, ISIS militants destroyed a handful of armored vehicles in its southern countryside on Thursday and also burned down an army barracks in the area.

Meanwhile, the Philippine Army sent a fresh batch of reinforcements to Marawi to replenish its ranks after some 80 government troops have been killed since Tuesday: Source Syrian Perspective)
Philippine army need Chinese drone to help them. ISIS in Philippine do not have Shoulder launched SAM. The drone can continue surveillance 24hrs providing update on position of IS fighter while directing fight on which position , if necessary they can strike ISIS fighter immediately with payload carry.
 
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