MANILA, Feb 19, 2024 (AFP) – Six soldiers and at least one Islamist militant have been killed in the southern Philippines, an army spokesman said Monday, as security forces hunted down fighters believed to have bombed a Catholic mass last December. The clashes took place Sunday in the jungle near the town of Munai on Mindanao island, Philippine army spokesman Colonel Louie Dema-ala told AFP. “This is part of the operation against the Dawlah Islamiyah. […]
Tag: militants
2 Filipino pro-IS militants suspected in Catholic church bombing
MANILA, Dec 6, 2023 (AFP) – Philippine police named two Filipino members of a pro-Islamic State militant group on Wednesday as suspects in the deadly bombing of a Catholic mass in the country’s insurgency-plagued south. Four people were killed and 50 were wounded in Sunday’s attack on worshippers gathered inside a university gym in Marawi, the country’s largest Muslim city, which was besieged by militants in 2017. The Islamic State group claimed the bombing, which […]
Putin warns of influx of Afghan militants disguised as refugees
Russian President Vladimir Putin urged his country Sunday to prevent an influx of refugees from Afghanistan after the Taliban takeover, saying militants could enter under the guise of seeking asylum. “Our Western partners are persistently raising the question of placing refugees in Central Asian countries before obtaining visas to the United States or other countries,” he told a meeting of officials of the ruling United Russia party. “But who is among these refugees? How can […]
IS-linked militants kill four farmers in Indonesia
PALU, Indonesia (AFP) –Islamic State-linked extremists have killed four farmers in a remote village on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi, police confirmed Wednesday, with one of the victims reportedly beheaded. Five sword-wielding attackers ambushed a group of farmers who were harvesting their coffee plantation in Kalimago village in Poso regency on Tuesday morning, Central Sulawesi police spokesperson Didik Supranoto said. The police blamed the attack on the Sulawesi-based East Indonesia Mujahideen (MIT), one of dozens […]
IS-linked militants kill four in Indonesia: police
PALU, Indonesia (AFP) — Islamic State-linked extremists killed four people in a remote Christian community on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi, authorities said Saturday, with one victim beheaded and another burned to death. The group of sword-and-gun wielding attackers ambushed Lembantongoa village in Central Sulawesi province Friday morning, killing several residents and torching half a dozen homes, including one used for regular prayers and services, police said. No arrests had yet been made and […]
Long way home for war-torn Marawi city residents
by Cecil Morella Agence France-Presse BALO-I, Lanao del Sur (AFP) — Cradling her baby in a muddy tent camp, Jamalia Pindaton has no idea if she can return home to Marawi in the southern Philippines after the end of a five-month war launched by Islamic State supporters. More than 350,000 people from in and around Marawi, the mainly Catholic Philippines’ Islamic capital, were displaced because of the conflict, which ended on Monday when soldiers killed […]
Two suspected rebels killed in Indian Kashmir gun battle
KASHMIR, India (AFP) — Government forces in Indian-administered Kashmir killed two suspected rebels in a gun battle on Monday, police said, and a manhunt was under way for more militants in the disputed Himalayan territory. Soldiers and special counterinsurgency police forces surrounded a neighborhood in Sopore, 45 kilometers (28 miles) from the main city of Srinagar, after receiving a tip-off that armed militants were hiding there, triggering a firefight. “Two militants killed in an encounter […]
WATCH: President Duterte makes surprise visit at SONA rally
President Rodrigo Roa Duterte on Monday, July 24, visited the protesters outside the Batasan complex after delivering his second State of the Nation Address (SONA) at the House of Representatives in Quezon City. #DuterteSONA2017
Military: Militants in Marawi used water route to bring in ammunition, evacuate wounded
MARAWI, Philippines (AFP) — Islamist militants occupying parts of Marawi used a water route to bring in ammunition and evacuate wounded fighters, helping them withstand a five-week military offensive, the army said Tuesday. The extremists have remained holed up in pockets of Marawi, weathering daily air and artillery bombardment and deadly urban street battles. Military spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Jo-ar Herrera said the route was discovered following the arrest of a man who used a boat to […]
At least 70 rescued by gov’t forces in Marawi City, but 2,000 people remain trapped
At least 70 people were rescued Saturday by government forces in Marawi City — including 23 teachers from Dansalan College, who were with a year-old baby, seven other children, and seven other adults — as intense fighting continued on its second week between the Islamist militants and government troopers. But as many as 2,000 people also remained trapped in desperate conditions in these areas, the government said, likely without food and water and with some […]
PHL needs modern firearms to fight ISIS, Duterte tells Putin
(Reuters) — President Rodrigo Duterte told Russian leader Vladimir Putin late Tuesday (May 23) that the Philippines needs modern arms to fight Islamic State and that he expected Russian support. Duterte also said he had to halt his visit to Moscow and return home as there was still fighting with militants there. The Maute group is touted to have links with ISIS. “I have to go home because I should be there at this time. […]
Philippine soldiers kill ‘more than 10’ militants in bid to free captives
Philippine soldiers killed “more than 10” Abu Sayyaf militants in an attempt to free Vietnamese captives held on a remote southern island as troops fired howitzer shells on rebel positions. Major-General Carlito Galvez, Military Commander of Western Mindanao, said 32 soldiers were also wounded in Sunday’s assault on an Abu Sayyaf hideout in Talipao Town, where the militants were believed to be holding six Vietnamese captives. There was no word on the fate of the […]
