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The foreign factor in Mindanao crisis
Scorecards! Gitcher scorecards here! You can't tell the players without a scorecard!
[MANILATIMES.NET] WHEN President Duterte mentioned in a talk that imported muscle would regroup in Mindanao after their rout in the Middle East, I greeted the statement with some skepticism. But with the Marawi incident and the discovery of imported muscle among the Maute band, I thought that the President must be some sort of Nostradamus.

As background, the Maute group, also known as the IS-Ranao, which figured prominently in the Marawi siege, is a radical Islamist group composed of former guerrillas of the secessionist Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) guand some imported muscle. The group is led by Abdullah Maute, the alleged founder of a Dawlah Islamiya, or 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 Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems....
 based in Lanao del Sur, Mindanao, Philippines. The group already figured in a clash with Army troops in February 2016 that ended with the capture of their headquarters in Butig, Lanao del Sur. The group is thought to have over 100 members and was supplied with equipment by a foreign terrorist. They are said to be affiliated with Jemaah Islamiyah, a Southeast Asian Islamist terror group.
Posted by: Fred 2017-06-10
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=490032