[ABS-CBN] Philippine president Rpdrigo Duterte said he was "not so keen" on accepting the New People's Army's offer to fight Islamist rebels in the country as troops continued to pursue terrorists in Marawi City. This after the National Democratic Front of the Philippines expressed its commitment to send New People’s Army militants to fight Islamic State-inspired militants in the country.
But the president said this may not be a good idea. He said, "I don’t know, but I’m not so keen about it. Anyway, it’s a show of goodwill."
Duterte said the communists may have realized that they could be rendered irrelevant if the Maute militants prevailed. He said, "They have offered to fight alongside with us against terrorism. Maybe they realized na kung manalo ang- we are overwhelmed at manalo- the ISIS will prevail in Mindanao or even a part of Mindanao, wala silang kasali sa gobyerno. The ISIS will never allow anybody to have in their company a group of persons which have... iba ‘yung ideolohiya.”
Duterte's latest pronouncement comes days after he called on the New People's Army and Moro militants to help in the fight against extremism. His decision to turn down the NDFP offer also comes in the wake of the government’s decision to suspend its talks with the communist movement.
Duterte reiterated his position that the communist militants must first issue a ceasefire document before the two sides could resume talks.
Continued on Page 47
[The Nation] Seven troops were wounded in a double bombing in Narathiwat's Tak Bai district on Friday morning.
The first happened at 9am at a bridge behind the Narathiwat Coastal Fishery Research Center. As five troops parked their pickup truck, rebels detonated a bomb hidden inside a motorcycle to ambush them. Police said the five soldiers had gone to help repair the house of a relative of a former rebel. The motorcycle belonged to Mariya Maka, who reported that it had been stolen after his friend borrowed it.
About 30 minutes later, as police inspected the scene, another bomb exploded about 800 meters away. The second bomb wounded more soldiers who had set up a roadblock after the first explosion.
[REUTERS] The general leading an offensive against pro-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.... gunnies holed up in a southern Philippine town has been relieved of his command, an army front man said on Friday, the 11th day of the country's biggest security crisis in years.
The removal of Brigadier-General Nixon Fortes as commander of the army brigade in Marawi City and his replacement by his deputy, Colonel Generoso Ponio, was not related to the battle that has raged in the city, the front man said.
"That's not the reason," front man Lieutenant-Colonel Ray Tiongson said when asked if Fortes' replacement was triggered by the course of the conflict.
Fortes was appointed commander of the army's 103rd Brigade in January and oversaw a series of operations on the island of Mindanao to disrupt the Maute, a group that has sworn allegiance to Islamic State which later laid siege to Marawi City.
A military source, speaking on condition of anonymity ... for fear of being murdered... , said Fortes was dismissed because not all his forces were in the city when the rebels began their rampage, even though military intelligence had indicated that Islamist murderous Moslems, including imported muscle, were amassing there.
The source said that some of Fortes' forces were busy fighting a small band of communist gunnies in a nearby town when some 400 gunnies overran Marawi City on May 23 after a botched military raid to capture their leader, Isnilon Hapilon.
Thirty-nine members of the security forces have been killed in the Marawi City battles, as well as 19 civilians and 120 rebel fighters.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/04/2017 00:00 ||
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Link ||
[11137 views]
Top|| File under: Maute group (IS)
#1
"That's not the reason," front man Lieutenant-Colonel Ray Tiongson said when asked if Fortes' replacement was triggered by the course of the conflict.
"It was...umm...something else"
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/04/2017 7:02 Comments ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
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Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
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[ABS-CBN] Philippine president Rpdrigo Duterte said he was "not so keen" on accepting the New People's Army's offer to fight Islamist rebels in the country as troops continued to pursue terrorists in Marawi City. This after the National Democratic Front of the Philippines expressed its commitment to send New People’s Army militants to fight Islamic State-inspired militants in the country. 
[The Nation] Seven troops were wounded in a double bombing in Narathiwat's Tak Bai district on Friday morning.
[REUTERS] The general leading an offensive against pro-
