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Southeast Asia

Soldiers Wounded as Philippine Govt Forces Overrun Militant Lair in South

2021-03-05

[BenarNews] At least five government soldiers were maimed during an intense firefight with a band of 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 Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear western pols talk they're not really Moslems....
-linked hard boyz in the southern Philippines, the military said Thursday.

A gunbattle broke out and lasted several hours after members of the 55th Infantry Battalion assaulted a suspected lair of the Daulah Islamiyah-Maute Group

...founded by brothers Omar and Abdullah Maute in 2013 as a proto-Islamic State for their relations and their friends and their relations’ friends. Like Osama bin Laden, they came from a wealthy and politically connected family, and like him they fell in love with the Wahhabi outlook during or following a fancy education abroad. After falling out with Commander Bravo of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) in 2014, they built a coalition of pro-Islamic State groups that transcended clan, including Isnilon Hapilon’s faction of Abu Sayyaf, an Islamic State cell from the town of Cotabato; and Ansharul Khalifa Philippines (AKP) based in Sultan Kudarat. In 2016 they swore allegiance to Abu Bakr al Baghdadi, calling themselves Daulah Islamiyah-Ranao, and in 2017 they conquered Marawi City, which brought immediate and thorough Philippine army attention...

in the hinterlands of Lanao del Sur province on Wednesday, military officials said.

"Five soldiers sustained minor injuries during the firefight and have been given medical attention," battalion commander Lt. Col. Franco Rafael Alano said.

Government security officials said there were no immediate reports of casualties on the enemy side, a local Death Eater group that had helped lead hundreds of pro-Islamic State (IS) fighters from the Philippines and other countries in a siege on the southern city of Marawi in 2017. Hundreds of fighters on both sides, as well as non-combatants were killed in a five-month battle then.

Alano said Wednesday’s firefight occurred in a remote village in the mountains outside the town of Madalum, where the enemy side dug in for five hours before escaping.

Troops recovered a home-made bomb, bomb-making materials, assorted ammunition, food rations and personal items, he said.

Baby paraphernalia was also recovered, indicating that an infant and its mother were in the company of the Death Eaters, Alano said.

"It was clear evidence of the terrorists’ disregard for the safety of their family members," he said.

The Death Eater group, he said, had been trying to build up its forces ever since their defeat in Marawi nearly four years ago. Those involved in the firefight in Lanao del Sur this week were part of its recruitment team, he added.

The clash took place a day after a suspected Dawlah Islamiyah member surrendered amid a military offensive against the group in the province, authorities said.

Lt. Gen. Corleto Vinluan Jr., chief of the military’s Western Mindanao Command, identified the member as Amirudin Dimakuta, 40, according to the state-run Philippine News Agency.

Posted by:trailing wife

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