And so Ramadan begins.
[BenarNews] Violence marred the eve of the Moslem holy month of Ramadan in the southern Philippines after suspects from a pro-Islamic State
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that they were al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're really 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 western pols talk they're not
reallyMoslems....
group killed a soldier and maimed another on Wednesday.
Troops were securing a highway in the town of Mamasapano in Maguindanao province when krazed killer suspects belonging to the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters
...a MILF splinter group aligned with the Islamic State...
(BIFF) shot up a checkpoint, local army chief Brig. Gen. Oriel Pangcog said.
The attack instantly killed Pfc. Jorey Abibas while Pfc. Jonathan Nacion was maimed, he said, adding a stray bullet struck a civilian. Nacion’s and the civilian’s injuries were not life threatening.
Pangcog said the murderous Moslems were possibly responding to the military’s killing of a BIFF commander last month.
"This is in retaliation for that," Pangcog said.
"We have alerted our detachment and they were looking for the vehicle used by the krazed killers."
Army troops launched artillery attacks against BIFF positions in the marshes bordering the towns of Pagalungan, Datu Montawal and Pikit following the ambush, said Von Al Haq, the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region’s interior minister.
BIFF is a splinter group of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), which was the country’s largest separatist force before it signed a peace pact with the government in 2014.
BIFF, which has openly supported the Islamic State group, has been blamed for several attacks, including bombings in public areas.
The latest ambush came a day before the country’s Moslem minority was to begin the Islamic holy month of fasting.
A large Moslem minority — more than 6 million of 110 million — lives in the southern part of the Philippines, Asia’s only predominantly Catholic nation.