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| Southeast Asia |
| Philippine troops kill 11 Islamist militants |
| 2016-08-27 |
| [ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] Philippine commandos killed 11 Islamist Death Eaters on a remote southern island on Friday, an army front man said, stepping up the offensive after President Rodrigo Duterte reiterated his aim to "destroy" one of Asia’s most notorious kidnap gangs. Major Filemon Tan said dozens of 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... rebels, a small but brutal group affiliated with ISIS Death Eaters in Iraq and Syria, were also maimed in the 45-minute shootout in the jungle of Jolo island. Seventeen commandos were maimed, Tan said, adding the soldiers clashed with about 100 Abu Sayyaf Death Eaters holding about 20 hostages, including eight Indonesians, five Malaysians, a Norwegian and a Dutch national. "The mission is clear. Seek and destroy the Abu Sayyaf," Tan told news hounds. "By all means, that’s what we are doing and we will not stop until it’s done." The Abu Sayyaf has dogged successive Philippine governments, entrenching its network with vast sums of ransom money in what has become one of Asia’s most lucrative kidnap rackets. Security experts say the rebels are motivated less by Islamist ideology and more by the tens of millions of dollars from kidnappings. Two Canadians were executed this year by the Abu Sayyaf. Last week, two Indonesians escaped captivity but there was speculation the Abu Sayyaf freed them after their families paid their ransoms. |
| Posted by:Fred |