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 Friday.
The widow of a slain Islamist militant leader will be charged for allegedly using social media to recruit Islamic State sympathisers to join a five-month siege of a southern city, Philippine authorities said Friday.
The main battle zone in a southern Philippine city seized by Islamic State supporters resembles a tsunami-hit wasteland, with bullet-riddled mosques and a network of tunnels testifying to their hide-and-kill tactics.
US Defense Secretary James Mattis on Wednesday praised the Philippine military for upholding human rights in a five-month battle against pro-Islamic State group militants in a southern city.
A five-month battle against Islamic State supporters in the southern Philippines that claimed more than 1,000 lives has ended, the nation’s defence secretary said on Monday.
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte on Tuesday declared a southern city “liberated from terrorists’ influence” but the military said the five-month battle against militants loyal to the Islamic State group was not yet over.
Philippine troops Sunday bombed militants loyal to the Islamic State group who have held out for over four months in a southern city and the military said the conflict would be over “very soon”.
Malaysian police have detained seven Filipinos suspected of involvement with the Abu Sayyaf militant group, an official said Thursday, the latest arrest of extremist suspects in the Muslim-majority country.
The Philippine military said Sunday it had captured the command centre of Islamic State group supporters who have besieged a southern city for nearly four months.
Church bells were set to toll across the mainly Catholic Philippines late Thursday as bishops rallied opposition to the “reign of terror” that has left thousands dead in President Rodrigo Duterte’s drug war.
