[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] A powerful kaboom killed 12 people and maimed at least 24 others at a night market late Friday in President Rodrigo Duterte’s hometown in the southern Philippines amid a security alert due to a major offensive against 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... gunnies in the region, officials said.
Regional military commander Lt. Gen. Rey Leonardo Guerrero said it was not immediately clear what caused the kaboom at a massage section of the market, which was cordoned off by police bomb experts and Sherlocks.
Police Chief Superintendent Manuel Gaerlan said witnesses gave contrasting accounts, with some saying that a cooking gas tank went kaboom! while others suggested it may have been some kind of an explosive.
Police set up checkpoints in key roads leading to the city, a regional gateway about 980 kilometers (610 miles) south of Manila.
TV footage showed plastic chairs strewn about at the scene of the blast, where witnesses said the bodies of some of the dead lay scattered a few hours after the kaboom. Ambulance vans drove to and from the area following the blast.
Full alert
Police forces in the capital Manila went on full alert at midnight following the deadly blast.
Duterte, who served as a longtime mayor of Davao before assuming the presidency in June, was in the region but has not issued any statement. His front man, Ernesto Abella, urged the public to be vigilant.
"While no one has yet grabbed credit it is best that the populace refrain from reckless speculation and avoid crowded places," Abella said. "There is no cause for alarm, but it is wise to be cautious."
Philippine forces were on alert amid an ongoing military offensive against Abu Sayyaf turbans in southern Sulu province, which intensified last week after the gunnies beheaded a kidnapped young villager. The gunnies threatened to launch an unspecified attack after the military said 30 of the gunnies were killed in the weeklong offensive.
Some commanders of the Abu Sayyaf, which is blacklisted by the United States and the Philippines as a terrorist organization for deadly bombings, ransom kidnappings and beheadings, have pledged allegiance to the ISIS. The military, however, says there has been no evidence of a direct collaboration and murderous Moslem action may have been aimed at bolstering their image after years of combat setbacks.
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Posted by: Fred ||
09/03/2016 00:00 ||
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[Anadolu] Abu Sayyaf militants killed four members of a rebel group in the Philippines' Muslim south Friday, as a military offensive against the Daesh-linked rebels. Reports say that Abu Sayyaf gunmen attacked a camp of the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) in the island province of Sulu. The fatalities included four MNLF militants and an Abu Sayyaf rebel.
The attack comes after the Abu Sayyaf issued statements threatening to launch attacks on military camps and communities in Sulu after President Rodrigo Duterte ordered troops to intensify operations against them.
MNLF militants have been known to play a role in efforts opposing the Abu Sayyaf, the group's commitment increasing after Duterte reached out to include the indigenous Moro front in the ongoing peace process. Last month, four Abu Sayyaf rebels died after a gun battle with MNLF militants in Kalingalang Caluang, Sulu.
The four MNLF militants killed Friday were reported to be from the faction of the group's fugitive founder Nur Misuari, who earlier this year began negotiations with the Abu Sayyaf that resulted in the rebels' release of 14 Indonesian sailors.
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Posted by: ryuge ||
09/03/2016 00:00 ||
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#1
moar pleeze
Posted by: Frank G ||
09/03/2016 18:56 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
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.
[Anadolu] Abu Sayyaf militants killed four members of a rebel group in the Philippines' Muslim south Friday, as a military offensive against the Daesh-linked rebels. Reports say that Abu Sayyaf gunmen attacked a camp of the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) in the island province of Sulu. The fatalities included four MNLF militants and an Abu Sayyaf rebel.
