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"They want to show force and sow chaos," national police chief Oscar Albayalde told DZMM radio, suggesting Abu Sayyaf was the prime suspect.
Jolo is a stronghold of the group, which runs a lucrative piracy and kidnapping operation that successive governments have failed to break up. The group, which operates in the waters and islands of western Mindanao, has beheaded numerous foreign captives when ransom demands were not met.
The Philippine military in mid-2017 encountered its biggest and longest battle since World War Two when an alliance of extremists loyal to Islamic State, among them foreigners and children, overran Marawi City and tried to establish a caliphate.
originally posted by: r0xor
They're going to get them this time guys, just you wait and see. They'll go in house-to-house and solve the problem on that island once and for all ðŸ¤
It's.. an island.. how hard could it be to defeat an insurgency? There's nowhere to flee, there's no major routes of supply, no new sources of fighters.
Sure, I wouldn't want to be one of the Phillipines soldiers but they are about their business, right? This is their homeland, their country we're talking about. Would Americans let an entire state become insurgent with gunmen, suicide bombers, kidnappings, executions? If they did because they weren't equipped to stop the rise of it but are now, would they let that state continue to be insurgent for decades?
originally posted by: manuelram16
a reply to: rickymouse
Don't think Duterte will have compassion for those sob's, currently he 'eliminates' drug dealer & criminals
originally posted by: vonclod
originally posted by: manuelram16
a reply to: rickymouse
Don't think Duterte will have compassion for those sob's, currently he 'eliminates' drug dealer & criminals
Yup, and anyone else who gets dragged into it..including non drug dealers and non criminals.
The clash with more than 100 members of the Abu Sayyaf group broke out in the town of Patikul in the Sulu province at 11:30 a.m. as troops pursued those behind a church attack on Sunday, Colonel Gerry Besana, spokesman for the military's Western Mindanao Command said.
The church bombing in Sulu, which killed 22 people and wounded more than 100 including civilians and soldiers, was a suicide attack carried out by an Indonesian couple, with help of the Abu Sayyaf group, Interior Minister Eduardo Año said on Friday.