[PhilStar] Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte has suspended the military offensive in Marawi, citing concerns over the safety of some 300 civilians being held by Islamic rebels still holed up in some parts of the besieged city. His instructions came on the heels of Congress’ vote to allow the extension of martial law in Mindanao until the end of the year.
The safety of the civilians, he pointed out, is the primary consideration of government security forces. He said, "I don’t care if they are Moros or Christians. I don’t want these innocents to be slaughtered so hintay lang tayo (let’s just wait). Patience."
Duterte admitted that the Marawi crisis “has dealt a terrible blow to our quest for peace, especially now that an alien ideology and a radical shift in purpose have been injected into the local setting.”
“I declared martial law in Mindanao because I believed that that was the fastest way to quell the rebellion at the least cost of lives and properties. At the same time, the government would be adequately equipped with the constitutional tool not only to prevent the escape of rebels who can easily mingle and pretend to be civilian evacuees only to re-group in another place to fight another day, but also to prevent them from spreading their gospel of hate and violence in the rest of Mindanao,” Duterte said.
Continued on Page 47
[NEWS.MB.PH] A notorious gunner and bomb expert of the Sulu-based 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... Group (ASG) under top leader Radullan Sahiron and another ASG member were tossed in the calaboose Maw! They're comin' to get me, Maw! as a result of the intensified operations of the military and police against the terrorist group.
Composite elements of the Joint Task Force Tawi-Tawi and the Provincial Police Office of Tawi-Tawi neutralized Abu Sayyaf and kidnap-for-ransom member Ibno Moro in Barangay Kamagong, Bongao, Tawi-Tawi at around 10:30 a.m. Saturday.
Moro, who has a standing warrant of arrest for murder, was a member of the late sub-leader Jul Asman Sawadjaan who operated in Tawi-Tawi and Sulu.
Ranked as the Number 8 Most Wanted in the province of Tawi-Tawi, Moro was involved in the 1989 massacre in Barangay Lapid-Lapid, Bongao; 2002 kidnapping of Alvin Chua at the Chinese Pier in Bongao; 2004 kidnapping of Sibuto Mayor Kuyoh Pajiji of Sibutu; and 2004 murder of Rodrigo Alejandro Sr. and his son, Rodrigo Alejandro, Jr., in Barangay Buan, Panglima Sugala.
"This is another operational feat attributable to the efforts of our troops on the ground and the police," Lieutenant General Carlito G. Galvez, Jr., the Commander of the Western Mindanao Command, said.
"Given the key involvement of Moro in various kidnappings perpetrated by the Tawi-Tawi based Abu Sayyaf members, the neutralization of the notorious bandit is deemed a big blow on the Abu Sayyaf and kidnap for ransom group, which has faced substantial loss as a result of our intensified operations," he added.
[Bangkok Post] A defense volunteer was killed and another man hurt in a gun attack on a tea shop in Pattani province on Sunday morning, media reports said.
Sai Buri district police investigator Chaowalit Atteng said the incident occurred when two men arrived on a motorcycle at a roadside tea shop on Cho Kuyae - Sai Buri road in tambon Tabing.
A group of villagers were sitting together in the shop when the gunmen opened fire. Manor Mahama, a defense volunteer from Sai Buri district, was shot in the head and died instantly. Hamaripeng Late, a villager who was sitting nearby, was hit in the body and injured.
This one happened almost a week ago, but it ain't official until Rantburg sez so.
[The Nation] A Thai policeman was killed and another was seriously wounded when Muslim rebels attacked a police checkpoint in Narathiwat province early on Thursday morning. The attack happened in Tambon Palukasamoh in Bacho district.
The two officers were sitting and resting inside the police booth when an unknown number of militants hurled six pipe bombs against the police booth. Two of the bombs landed on the roof of the booth and one of them exploded.
The four other bombs fell on the roof of an adjacent house and outside the fenced area. The bombs that fell outside the fenced area did not explode.
Continued on Page 47
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
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
[PhilStar] Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte has suspended the military offensive in Marawi, citing concerns over the safety of some 300 civilians being held by Islamic rebels still holed up in some parts of the besieged city. His instructions came on the heels of Congress’ vote to allow the extension of martial law in Mindanao until the end of the year.
[Bangkok Post] A defense volunteer was killed and another man hurt in a gun attack on a tea shop in Pattani province on Sunday morning, media reports said.
