Follow up to this story from yesterdsy.
[BenarNews] The Filipino military said Wednesday that it had identified the 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....
turban group’s new emir for Southeast Asia as the leader of a local bully boy faction being targeted in an offensive underway in the southern Philippines.
Abu Zacharia (also known as Jer Mimbantas and Faharudin Hadji Satar) is believed to have survived the military operation in Lanao del Sur province that was launched on Tuesday and involved air strikes and ground troops.
"We have information that Abu Zacaria was designated as (IS) emir for Southeast Asia," Brig. Gen. Jose Maria Cuerpo II told news hounds on Wednesday. Cuerpo is the commanding officer of 103rd Infantry Brigade, which led the assault.
The offensive overran Zacharia’s base in a hinterland village in Maguing town, the military said. It announced that another suspected bully boy had died, bringing the corpse count to three Death Eaters and one soldier.
Lanao del Sur is where hundreds of pro-IS Death Eaters laid siege to Marawi, the historic provincial capital, for five months in 2017.
On Tuesday, the military launched pre-dawn
...KABOOM!...
s while sending ground troops to attack positions of Zacharia and his men. The military has been pursuing Zacharia’s group since January, Cuerpo said, adding that a recent intelligence report warned that his group might be preparing for a new round of hostilities.
"We have evidence, that is why we launched the offensive," Cuerpo said.
Abu Zacharia succeeded Owaida Marohombsar (also known as Abu Dar), the leader of the Daulah Islamiyah-Maute Group who was killed in Lanao del Norte, a neighboring province, sometime in March 2019. Daulah Islamiyah means Islamic State in the local language.