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Security experts warn that southern Philippines may become ‘sanctuary’ for IS fighters returning from Middle East
[SCMP] Southeast Asian Islamic State...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allaharound with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not reallyMoslems.... (IS) fighters returning from the Middle East following the group’s setbacks are expected to rebase in the southern Philippines, a security conference heard yesterday. Instability and the easy flow of weapons have made Mindanao and nearby Philippine islands attractive to bad boy groups, said speakers at the Milipol conference on homeland security in Singapore. "Currently, IS is moving towards creating a territory in southern Philippines," counterterrorism analyst Rohan Gunaratna told the conference. "The most recent communication issued by IS has announced that they have formally declared an East Asia division of IS in the southern Philippines." "Our forecast for 2017 is that the threat in this region will grow because of the creation of an IS nucleus in the southern Philippines," Gunaratna added. "The instability in the southern Philippines and the availability of weapons, refugee flows ... create the ripe conditions for foreign Singapore’s Home Affairs Minister K. Shanmugam also told the conference that the southern Philippines "is becoming an area that is difficult to control despite the best efforts of the Philippine government". Posted by: Fred 2017-04-05 |
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