Breaking News, Latest Philippines Headlines, World, Entertainment, Politics, Weather & Video News
Malaysian police have detained 20 alleged Islamic militants, including a leading member of an Indonesian extremist group and others believed to be planning to fight in the strife-torn southern Philippines. Authorities said they were the latest arrests of alleged extremists in Muslim-majority Malaysia, as fears grow militants who had been fighting with the Islamic State Group overseas are heading back to Southeast Asia after the jihadists’ losses in the Middle East. Police said the arrests […]
MANILA, Philippines (AFP) — The Philippine military said on Sunday it had recovered the body of an elderly German hostage who was beheaded by Islamic militants last week. The Abu Sayyaf, a kidnap-for-ransom network in the southern Philippines that has pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group, killed Jurgen Kantner, 70, after its demands for 30 million pesos ($600,000) were not met. Military officials said marines found Kantner’s body on Saturday evening in the […]
MANILA, Philippines (AFP) — Seven military bodyguards of President Rodrigo Duterte and two other soldiers were wounded Tuesday in an ambush by suspected Islamic militants on the eve of his planned visit to the southern Philippines, the military and president said. Military spokesmen said a bomb hit the soldiers’ convoy as it drove on a road in a southern region where an armed group which had pledged allegiance to the Islamic State (IS) group operated, […]
PHILIPPINE National police chief Ronald dela Rosa said Islamic militants in the southern Philippines who have pledged allegiance to the Islamic State (IS) group were probably behind the failed bomb attempt near the United States embassy in Manila. “This is an attempted act of terrorism,” Dela Rosa told a news briefing in Manila. “Because of an ongoing police/military operation there, (the militants) have many casualties. We can theorize that this is a diversion to […]
MANILA, Philippines (AFP) — Philippine president-elect Rodrigo Duterte says he could be open to peace talks with the Islamic militant group Abu Sayyaf, which recently beheaded two foreign hostages and kidnapped seven more. “The Abu Sayyaf is not my enemy. I know it is connected with the issue of Mindanao,” Duterte told supporters in a speech in the central city of Cebu late Saturday, referring to the rebellion-torn south of the country. “That is why […]
(REUTERS) The gunman who slaughtered 49 people at a gay nightclub in Florida said he had a car rigged with bombs outside and threatened to strap hostages into explosive vests, according to partial transcripts of 911 calls he made released on Monday. Omar Mateen, 29, paused during a three-hour siege to telephone emergency dispatchers three times and to post internet messages from inside the Pulse nightclub professing his support for Islamist militant groups. “You […]
MANILA, Philippines (AFP) — Islamic militants in the Philippines issued a fresh warning Tuesday threatening to harm three hostages, just over a week after they beheaded a captive. The trio – from Canada, Norway and the Philippines – appealed for help from the Philippine and Canadian governments in a video uploaded to YouTube Tuesday and reported by SITE intelligence group, which monitors jihadist media. “To the Philippine government: Please stop shooting at us and trying to […]
MANILA ,Philippines (AFP) — Philippine warplanes on Thursday attacked Islamic militants holding 20 foreign hostages on a remote southern island, but there was no sign of the captives, the military said. Government forces said they rained artillery fire on Abu Sayyaf gunmen on a mountainous area of Jolo island, as planes and helicopters flew low over the jungle terrain dropping bombs. President Benigno Aquino on Wednesday vowed to “neutralise” the militants, who have declared allegiance […]
JAKARTA , Indonesia (AFP) — Indonesia hopes next week to secure an agreement with Malaysia and the Philippines on conducting joint military patrols on the high seas where Islamic militants have been on a kidnapping spree, an official said Thursday. The plight of hostages held by the Abu Sayyaf militant group could also be on the agenda when the foreign ministers and military commanders of the three neighbours meet next Thursday in Jakarta for talks. […]
MANILA, Philippines (AFP) — The United States has issued a fresh travel warning for most of the southern Philippines after a surge of kidnappings there, with some victims being snatched from vessels at sea. A State Department advisory on Thursday asked its citizens to defer “non-essential” travel to the Sulu archipelago and the southern tip of the western island of Palawan, and to take “extreme caution” elsewhere in the southern region of Mindanao. It cited “the […]
ZAMBOANGA, Philippines (AFP) — A retired Italian priest held hostage for six months by suspected Islamic militants left a Philippine hospital Saturday a day after his ordeal ended, looking frail though officials said he was in good health. His face partly hidden by a red baseball cap, Rolando Del Torchio stroked his grey beard and waved briefly before getting into an ambulance that the military said delivered him to a chartered flight. The authorities found […]
MANILA, Philippines (Reuters) — The Philippine military said on Friday (March 11) they will not negotiate with the Islamist militants who abducted two Canadians, a Norwegian, and a Filipino woman. A video posted on a Facebook page linked to Philippine Islamists showed the hostages appealing for their governments to accept the demands of the militants and were given a one month deadline or face execution. The four were kidnapped from a beach resort on […]
