Post by Daniel on Mar 3, 2016 10:41:01 GMT -5
ISIS making ground - in the Philippines
By Arutz Sheva Staff
3/3/2016
Jihadists fighting in the name of the Islamic State group (ISIS or IS) are escalating attacks in the southern Philippines, analysts said, deepening fears for the volatile region after its main Muslim rebel group failed to seal a peace pact.
Gunmen who have pledged allegiance to the jihadists controlling vast swathes of Iraq and Syria have instigated a series of deadly battles with the army since the nation's parliament blocked the peace push last month.
An assassination attempt this week on a visiting Saudi Arabian preacher who was on an IS hit list has raised the alarm further, although police emphasized they were yet to determine the gunman's motives.
"Their influence is growing stronger and it is expanding," Rodolfo Mendoza, a senior analyst at the Manila-based Philippine Institute for Peace, Violence and Terrorism Research told AFP, referring to IS.
He said the various local groups that had pledged allegiance to IS were "planning big operations, like bombings, attacks or assassinations".
Such violence has plagued large areas of the southern Philippines for decades, as Muslim rebels have fought a separatist insurgency that has claimed 120,000 lives.
continue reading
www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/208847
By Arutz Sheva Staff
3/3/2016
Jihadists fighting in the name of the Islamic State group (ISIS or IS) are escalating attacks in the southern Philippines, analysts said, deepening fears for the volatile region after its main Muslim rebel group failed to seal a peace pact.
Gunmen who have pledged allegiance to the jihadists controlling vast swathes of Iraq and Syria have instigated a series of deadly battles with the army since the nation's parliament blocked the peace push last month.
An assassination attempt this week on a visiting Saudi Arabian preacher who was on an IS hit list has raised the alarm further, although police emphasized they were yet to determine the gunman's motives.
"Their influence is growing stronger and it is expanding," Rodolfo Mendoza, a senior analyst at the Manila-based Philippine Institute for Peace, Violence and Terrorism Research told AFP, referring to IS.
He said the various local groups that had pledged allegiance to IS were "planning big operations, like bombings, attacks or assassinations".
Such violence has plagued large areas of the southern Philippines for decades, as Muslim rebels have fought a separatist insurgency that has claimed 120,000 lives.
continue reading
www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/208847
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