To understand this better I reported on this earlier this week.
Here are some of the articles to give you a better idea of what this is all about:
- Habeas corpus suspended in Mindanao Last Tuesday s...
- Marawi crisis: What we know so far
- Marawi Philippines death toll rises as govt grappl...
- TIMELINE: Maute attack (an ISIS affiliated attack)...
- Duterte Declares Limited Martial Law As Bloodshed ...
- The Philippines appears to be a mess right now
Basically, the way to understand this is while Duterte and the defense minister of the Philippines were in Russia visiting Putin their army and police tried to arrest the leader of the ISIS faction in Marawi city on Mindanao Island of the Philippines. Then 100 ISIS soldiers showed up that the army and police didn't expect and killed some soldiers and beheaded a policeman. Duterte returned put up a naval blockade between Mindanao and any other islands of the Philippines and declared Martial law on Mindanao Island so a whole lot of people are going to be killed now (hopefully only ISIS members). This is what is going on so far that I know about.
Also, the Philippines have been Christian and Muslim on various islands for a long time now. So, often there are skirmishes between extremist Muslims and Christians over the years. Also, Duterte is known as the "Trump" of the Philippines and often kills drug addicts himself when he sees them. He has killed or ordered killed over 5000 already. since ISIS soldiers are often drug addicts first he likely has killed a lot of drug addicted Muslims too which likely makes ISIS (and some Muslims pretty mad). Likely Duterte is a Christian also (I believe presently). This is what I know so far about all this. However, this likely is going to be a massacre on Mindanao now because of the way this has gone by government troops of anyone left there who wasn't smart enough to run away already.
begin quote from:
ISIS' black flag rises in Philippines
British police in race to find Manchester terror network
Philippines: The next ISIS stronghold? 01:01
ISIS in Southeast Asia: Philippines battles growing threat
Updated 2:01 AM ET, Mon May 29, 2017
(CNN)The black flag of ISIS has been raised in the Philippines.
At least 103 people have died in
the city of Marawi on the southern island of Mindanao in less than a
week as fighters affiliated with the so-called Islamic State engaged in
violent clashes with government forces, and martial law was declared over the entire island.
Local
resident Chico Usman said the militants had entered the predominantly
Muslim city of some 200,000 suddenly, on the afternoon of May 24,
wearing masks and carrying assault rifles. "Everybody was shocked and
ran into their houses," he said, adding they could hear gunfire and
fighting until the following morning.
Black
ISIS flags emblazoned in white with the words "There is no god but God"
were flying from "every corner in the city," said Usman, who spoke to
CNN from near Saguiaran, a town outside Marawi, where thousands of
fleeing residents had taken temporary shelter.
Photos
showed long queues of cars piled with people and belongings, as tanks
and armored troop vehicles headed in the opposite direction.
An
ISIS fighter erects the flag of the so-called Islamic State atop a
school near a mosque in Marawi, southern Philippines on May 24, 2017.
Clashes between government forces and militants had claimed the lives of 19 civilians, 11 military and four policemen, as of Sunday afternoon, according to a spokesperson for the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP). The AFP confirmed 61 militants had also been killed.
In a separate incident,
eight other people -- thought to be fleeing the city -- were found dead
in a ravine. Witnesses said the victims were asked to recite Muslim
prayers, according to CNN Philippines. Those who failed were taken by
the armed men. The Philippines is a predominantly Catholic country but
Mindanao has a significant Muslim population.
The
latest violence flared up on May 23, after the military launched an
operation targeting Isnilon Hapilon, a Filipino militant leader, who was
last year designated ISIS emir for Southeast Asia.
Surrounded
and fearing capture, Hapilon is thought to have issued an emergency
call for reinforcements from members of the Maute group, a local
Islamist militant organization that's pledged allegiance to ISIS, who
poured into Marawi by the hundreds, setting fire to buildings, taking
hostages and entering into running street-battles with government forces
as they came.
While
Islamist and criminal groups have been active in the lawless tri-border
area between the Philippines, Malaysia and Indonesia for years, such an
audacious and aggressive attack on government troops by fighters loyal
to ISIS has shocked many observers -- and increased fears the group is
succeeding in extending its influence into Southeast Asia.
An Asian caliphate?
"What's
happening in Mindanao is no longer a rebellion of Filipino citizens. It
has transmogrified into invasion by foreign terrorists," said
Philippines Solicitor General Jose Calida during a press briefing last week. "They want to create Mindanao as part of the caliphate."
While ISIS has yet to declare a wilayah -- or state -- of the caliphate in Southeast Asia as it has done in Libya and Saudi Arabia, many analysts believe it is merely a matter of time.
The
influence of ISIS has spread throughout Southeast Asia in recent years,
with more than 60 groups in the region pledging allegiance to
self-declared caliph Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, according to Rohan Gunaratna, head of the Singapore-based International Centre for Political Violence and Terrorism Research (ICPVTR).
Last
week's suicide attacks in the Indonesian capital of Jakarta, which
claimed the lives of three police officers, is a case in point. Though
carried out by Indonesian nationals, Jakarta police suspect the attacks
are linked to ISIS.
Philippine
marines aboard their vehicles maneuver through a street on their way to
an assault on the hide out of Muslim militants near the town center in
Marawi, in southern island of Mindanao on May 28, 2017.
While in Malaysia, six suspected militants -- including a alleged ISIS arms smuggler -- were picked up in special operation by the country's Counter Terrorism Division last week. Other recent attacks throughout the region, including last year's grenade blast in a bar near Kuala Lumpur, have also been attributed to the terror network.
Unified Islamist front
Ties
between the Philippines-based groups, which have led much of violence
in recent years, and their counterparts in Indonesia and Malaysia are
also growing. In April this year, a Philippines military strike
on suspected ISIS-affiliated Maute militants in the Lanao del Sur
province of Mindanao, killed 37, including three Indonesians and one
Malaysian who were believed to be members of Jemaah Islamiyah -- an
Indonesia-based terror group.
Residents of Marawi in the southern Philippines flee the city as government forces and ISIS militants clash.
According
to Otso Iho, a senior analyst at Jane's Terrorism and Insurgency
Center, increased cooperation between groups is a significant step
towards "generating a much more unified Islamist front particularly in
the southern Philippines."
A
report by the Jakarta-based Institute for Policy Analysis of Conflict
(IPAC), however, noted that while ISIS "has deepened cooperation among
extremist groups in Southeast Asia," law enforcement and counter
terrorist efforts remain largely national.
"Geographical
and sovereignty issues, competing territorial claims and regional
politicking ... seem to be hindering regional cooperation," warned
analysts Jasminder Singh and Muhammad Haziq Bin Jani in a report last year.
If
action is not taken, they said, the region risks becoming a Southeast
Asian version of the tribal areas along the border of Afghanistan and
Pakistan.
Risks to which Mindanao is particularly vulnerable.
The
southernmost island in the Philippines, Mindanao has long been plagued
by conflict, with the region experiencing Communist insurgencies,
nationalist rebellions, and brutal military crackdowns launched from
Manila.
According
to the United Nations World Food Program, outbreaks of conflict in 2000
and 2008 "each led to the displacement of nearly a million
individuals."
This
instability, combined with the porous maritime borders between the
Philippines, Malaysia and Indonesia that make it easy for groups to flee
any crackdowns, has helped to establish the area an ideal hideout for drug smugglers, pirates, kidnap-for-cash groups, and increasingly, terrorists from across the region.
ISIS goes east
In
a 2016 video circulated online, armed men -- most appearing no older
than teenagers -- stand holding assault rifles and other weapons, as
Arabic music plays in the background. They join their hands and pledge
allegiance to Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the self-declared caliph of the
Islamic State.
Later
in the video, a Malaysian fighter urges viewers who cannot travel to
the Middle East to go instead "to the Philippines." He then joins two
other fighters -- identified as Filipino and Indonesian -- in beheading
three Christian captives.
Philippine
marines take their position as they begin an assault on Muslim
militants near the city hall in Marawi, in southern island of Mindanao
on May 28, 2017.
Bearing
the trademark high production values and gruesome executions of the
core ISIS propaganda wing, the video represented the growing importance
of Southeast Asia to the group's leaders in Syria. Recent issues of
Rumiyah -- a monthly propaganda magazine published by ISIS in multiple
languages -- have also highlighted actions by Islamic State fighters
against the "Filipino Crusader army" in the region.
According
to researchers at ICPVTR in Singapore, ISIS has formed Katibah
Al-Muhajir -- the Brigade of the Migrant -- to organize fighters in
Southeast Asia.
"For
approximately 500 Malaysian Ringgit, a prospective foreign jihadist can
secure his travel arrangements, from Malaysia to the Philippines, and
be given a complimentary weapon," analysts Singh and Bin Jani wrote in
their report last year. This brigade is under the command of Hapilon.
A
skinny, baby-faced 51-year-old, Hapilon is originally from Basilan, an
island in the southern part of Mindanao in the Sulu archipelago, according to the FBI.
The
militant leader, who first came to prominence as the commander of the
Abu Sayyaf terrorist group, has a long rap sheet -- including a series
of high-profile kidnappings-for-ransom of foreign nationals in the southern Philippines.
He
was endorsed by ISIS as the emir for Southeast Asia in 2016, according
to IPAC despite the fact he speaks "neither Arabic nor English, and his
religious knowledge is limited."
His
stature -- as confirmed by the Maute group's coming to his aid, along
with a $5 million US government bounty for information that would lead
to his capture or conviction -- is likely based on his ties to foreign
jihadis and other ISIS-linked groups in the region, IPAC said in the report last year.
Members
of Philippine police special forces maneuver as they launch an assault
on Muslim militants near the city hall in Marawi on May 28, 2017.
Returnee fighters
Regional
cooperation in combating militants such as Hapilon may become more
important than ever before, as experts predict loss of land in Syria and
Iraq will see ISIS leadership turn more attention to the southern
Philippines.
Whether
because they are sent there by al Baghdadi, or because they are fleeing
Syrians and Kurds and other fronts, there are hundreds of local
Southeast Asian fighters poised to bring their expertise and ideological
commitment to the region.
According to a report by the Carnegie Council,
up to "1,000 Southeast Asians may have traveled to ISIS-controlled
territory in the Middle East." Though such numbers are unconfirmed,
multiple regional officials have expressed alarm at the lack of
transnational programs and strategies in place to deal with potential
returnees.
Australian
Attorney General George Brandis who is a strong proponent of a more
joined-up approach -- and who recently labeled the security threat of
returning fighters as among the "greatest in the region" -- has said the
matter would be discussed at an upcoming meeting of Asian security
ministers later this year.
"Governments
in the region have to constantly be vigilant against the threat of the
returnees," said Singapore-based analyst Bin Jani.
Along
with the hundreds of fighters in the Middle East known to authorities,
there are many more who are not being tracked, Bin Jani said, "militants
can be very unassuming when they're not carrying their guns."
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