| Submit your comments on this article |
| Southeast Asia |
| BIFF sees Abu ‘diversionary attack’ in Davao bombing |
| 2016-09-06 |
| [NEWSINFO.INQUIRER.NET] The bombing of the Davao City night market on Friday could have been meant to divert the Duterte government’s ongoing military operations in Sulu against the Abu Sayyaf ...also known as al-Harakat al-Islamiyya, an Islamist terror group based in Jolo, Basilan and Zamboanga. Since its inception in the early 1990s, the group has carried out bombings, kidnappings, murders, head choppings, and extortion in their uniquely Islamic attempt to set up an independent Moslem province in the Philippines. Abu Sayyaf forces probably number less than 300 cadres. The group is closely allied with remnants of Indonesia's Jemaah Islamiya and has loose ties with MILF and MNLF who sometimes provide cannon fodder... , an official of an Islamic rebel group said on Monday. "The terror group (Abu Sayyaf) has its back against the wall and had to divert attention from Sulu to Davao," said Abu Misri Mama, spokesperson of the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters ...a MILF splinter group aligned with the Islamic State... (BIFF), a breakaway faction of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF). Mama said the deployment of additional soldiers and military hardware to Sulu to finish off the Abu Sayyaf could be the reason for the kaboom. Abu Sayyaf members have been tagged in the series of kidnap-for-ransom and extortion activities in Mindanao victimizing local and foreign victims. Denying any BIFF involvement in the bombing that killed 14 people and maimed 67 others, Mama said they had nothing against the government’s war on illegal drugs and terrorism. Mama said the BIFF was sympathizing with the families of the blast victims, some of whom were from Maguindanao and other parts of Central Mindanao. "We sympathize with you, hoping that the perpetrators are identified and punished," he said./ |
| Posted by:Fred |