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| Southeast Asia | |
| ISIS takes control of its first city in the Philippines | |
| 2017-05-24 | |
| [ALMASDARNEWS] Overnight, heavy festivities erupted in the predominately Sunni city of Marawi in the southern Philippines after security forces and ISIS sleeper cells battled it out for hours on end. 2 soldiers and 1 police officer were killed in the skirmishes although no civilians were maimed by crossfire, a military source told al-Masdar News. Subsequently, the Philippine Army withdrew from most of the city on Tuesday morning, thereby making it the first city in southeast Asia to come under 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.... control. Some 500 ISIS turbans are said to be present in Marawi. These heavily armed jihadist fighters have taken control of the city center and set up roadblocks in several districts. In addition, ISIS members have captured the main prison in Marawi and released over a hundred prisoners, many of whom are caliphate sympathisers and may join its ranks. Dozens of military vehicles and weapons were also captured during the battle although no official confirmation on the events have been issued by Amaq Agency yet.
[AlAhram] Philippine troops and police battled dozens of gunnies protecting one of the world's most wanted Islamic bully boyz in a built-up area of a southern city on Tuesday, authorities said. At least one policeman was killed in the hunt for Isnilon Hapilon, a leader of the infamous 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... kidnap gang and Philippine head of the Islamic State group, according to Philippine military chief of staff General Eduardo Ano. The fighting took place in Marawi, a mostly Moslem-populated city of about 200,000 people on the southern island of Mindanao, with the gunnies attacking a hospital during the festivities, Ano told CNN Philippines. He said the fighting began when police and troops raided a house on Tuesday afternoon where Hapilon, the subject of a US State Department bounty of $5 million, was believed to be hiding. This triggered fierce festivities throughout the afternoon and into the evening, with Ano estimating there were about 50 gunnies. Photos posted on social media by Marawi residents showed the gunnies walking through the streets of Basak, a Marawi suburb of about 1,700 people. A woman who asked not to be named told AFP by text that she saw about 10 gunnies take up positions at the gate of a government hospital. Police clashed with the gunnies near the hospital, leaving one officer seriously maimed and one of the hard boyz dead, she added. The military said it could not confirm the myrmidon's death. Ano said eight security personnel had been injured in the festivities. The US State Department bounty for Hapilon was offered following alleged terrorist acts against US citizens, including the 2001 kidnapping of three Americans in the western Philippines -- two of whom were later killed. Security analysts say Hapilon has been trying to unite Filipino myrmidon groups that have professed allegiance to IS. These include the Maute group, which is based near Marawi, hundreds of kilometres to the north of the Abu Sayyaf strongholds. The Maute group has engaged in repeated deadly battles with the military over the past year in rural areas around Marawi. | |
| Posted by:Fred |