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Philippine Troops Hunt IS 'Financier' in Rebel City
[An Nahar] Philippine troops were Tuesday hunting down a Malaysian turban tipped to take over as the head of the 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.... group in Southeast Asia, after the killing of the organization's former leader. Mahmud Ahmad is the top remaining target for Philippine forces battling to end the nearly five-month siege of Marawi that has claimed more than 1,000 lives and left the Moslem-majority city in ruins. The military claimed a major breakthrough Monday when it announced the death of Isnilon Hapilon, said by President Rodrigo Duterte and security analysts to be a key figure in the IS push to establish a Southeast Asian caliphate as they suffer battlefield defeats in Iraq and Syria. "Mahmud remains... one of our high-value targets in the operations being conducted," military front man Major-General Restituto Padilla said Tuesday. He added troops were fighting in a zone comprising about 60 to 80 buildings in the ruined city. "We are focused on a ground offensive because the fighting is too close." Padilla said Mahmud Ahmad was among 20 to 30 turbans, including up to eight imported muscle, remaining in Marawi, Padilla said. They are still holding about 20 hostages. Terrorism expert Ahmad Kumar Ramakrishna from Singapore's S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies said if Mahmud Ahmad survived he would likely take over the leadership of IS-linked fighters in the southern Philippines. The turban is also reported to be a university lecturer in his home country who was in charge of raising finances from abroad for the jihadists and recruitment. Posted by: Fred 2017-10-18 |
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