ISIS Touches Down in the Philippines

ISIS Touches Down in the Philippines

by Tony Cartalucci

Ex: https://landdestroyer.blogspot.com 

Mayhem broke out across the southern Philippine city of Marawi where militants besieged it and hoisted flags of the so-called "Islamic State." Located on the southern island of Mindanao, the city is only slightly removed from Al Qaeda affiliate Abu Sayaff's primary area of operation on nearby Jolo and Basilan islands.

The UK Independent in an article titled, "Isis-linked militants take priest and churchgoers hostage in Philippines," would report:

President Rodrigo Duterte declared martial law in the south because of the militants' siege on the city on Tuesday and abandoned a trip to Russia to deal with the crisis. 

Mr Duterte vowed to place southern Mindanao island, where Marawi is situated, and its 22 million residents under military rule for up to a year if necessary.

The article would also report:

Troops are battling to contain dozens of militants from the Maute group, which pledged allegiance to Isis in 2015, after they escaped a botched security raid on a hideout and overran streets, bridges and buildings. 

Two soldiers and a police officer are among those killed and at least 12 people have been wounded in the violence, seeing Maute fighters set fire to a school, a church and a prison. 

The security crisis represents a seemingly inexplicable expansion of the Islamic State in Asia - even as the US and its allies claim the organization is being rolled back across the Middle East and its revenue streams are contracting in the wake of defeat.

US-Saudi Sponsored Terrorism Seeks to Coerce Asia 

Both the Maute group and Abu Sayaff are extensions of Al Qaeda's global terror network, propped up by state sponsorship from Saudi Arabia and Qatar, and fed recruits via a global network of likewise Saudi and Qatari funded "madrasas." In turn, Saudi Arabia and Qatar's state sponsorship of global terrorism for decades has been actively enabled by material and political support provided by the United States.

This arrangement provides for Washington both a global mercenary force with which to wage proxy war when conventional and direct military force cannot be used, and a pretext for direct US military intervention when proxy warfare fails to achieve Washington's objectives.

This formula has been used in Afghanistan in the 1980s to successfully expel the Soviet Union, in 2011 to overthrow the Libyan government, and is currently being used in Syria where both proxy war and direct US military intervention is being applied.

Maute and Abu Sayaff activity fits into this global pattern perfectly.

The Philippines is one of many Southeast Asian states that has incrementally shifted from traditional alliances and dependency on the United States to regional neighbors including China, as well as Eurasian states including Russia.

The Philippine president, Rodrigo Duterte, cancelling his meeting with Russia is a microcosm of the very sort of results Maute and Abu Sayaff are tasked with achieving in the Philippines. Attempts by the US to justify the presence of its troops in the Philippines as part of a wider strategy of encircling China with US military installations across Asia would also greatly benefit from the Islamic State "suddenly spreading" across the island nation.

Likewise, violence in Malaysia and Thailand are directly linked to this wider US-Saudi alliance, with violence erupting at each and every crucial juncture as the US is incrementally pushed out of the region. Indonesia has likewise suffered violence at the hands of the Islamic State, and even Myanmar is being threatened by Saudi-funded terrorism seeking to leverage and expand the ongoing Rohingya humanitarian crisis.

That US-Saudi sponsorship drives this terrorism, not the meager revenue streams of the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq, goes far in explaining why the terrorist organization is capable of such bold attacks in Southeast Asia even as Russia and Iranian backed Syrian troops extinguish it in the Middle East.

 

US-Saudi Links to Abu Sayaff and other Terrorists in the Philippines 

A US diplomatic cable leaked by Wikileaks dated 2005 would state:

Philippine officials noted their continuing concern about Saudi-origin terrorist financing coming into the Philippines under the cover of donations to mosques, orphanages, and madrassahs. Although three Saudi nationals suspected of being couriers had been detained on separate occasions, Saudi Ambassador Wali had intervened in each case to secure their release.

Yousaf Butt of the Washington-based US National Defense University would reveal in a Huffington Post article titled, "How Saudi Wahhabism Is the Fountainhead of Islamist Terrorism," that:

It would be troublesome but perhaps acceptable for the House of Saud to promote the intolerant and extremist Wahhabi creed just domestically. But, unfortunately, for decades the Saudis have also lavishly financed its propagation abroad. Exact numbers are not known, but it is thought that more than $100 billion have been spent on exporting fanatical Wahhabism to various much poorer Muslim nations worldwide over the past three decades. It might well be twice that number. By comparison, the Soviets spent about $7 billion spreading communism worldwide in the 70 years from 1921 and 1991.

The leaked cable and reports by Western analysts when taken together, reveal that Saudi-funded madrasas in the Philippines are directly fueling terrorism there.

The answer to why is simple.

For the same purposes the US used Saudi-funded terrorism in Afghanistan in the 1980s and in Libya and Syria beginning in 2011 - the US is using Saudi-funded terrorism to coerce the government of the Philippines amid Washington's faltering "pivot to Asia" which began under US President Barack Obama and now continues under President Trump.

Countering US-Saudi Sponsored Terrorism 

With US President Trump announcing a US-Saudi alliance against terrorism - the US has managed to strategically misdirect public attention away from global terrorism's very epicenter and protect America's premier intermediaries in fueling that terrorism around the world.

The Philippines would be unwise to turn to this "alliance" for help in fighting terrorism both the US and Saudi Arabia are directly and intentionally fueling.

Instead - for Southeast Asia - joint counter-terrorism efforts together and with China and Russia would ensure a coordinated and effective means of confronting this threat on multiple levels.

By exposing the US-Saudi role in regional terrorism - each and every act of terrorism and militancy would be linked directly to and subsequently taint the US and Saudi Arabia in the hearts and minds of Southeast Asia's population.

This paves the way for a process of exposing and dismantling US-Saudi funded fronts - including Saudi-sponsored madrasas and US-funded NGOs - both  of which feed into regional extremism and political subversion. As this unfolds, each respective nation would be required to invest in genuine local institutions to fill sociopolitical and economic space previously occupied by these foreign funded fronts.

Until then, Asia should expect the US and its Saudi partners to continue leveraging terrorism against the region. If unchecked, Asia should likewise expect the same progress-arresting instability that has mired the Middle East and North Africa for decades.

Tony Cartalucci, Bangkok-based geopolitical researcher and writer, especially for the online magazine “New Eastern Outlook”.   

The Philippino Front of the Islamic State

Author : Ivan Konovalov

Ex: http://zejournal.mobi

The president of the Philippines, Rodrigo Duterte, as well as Bashar Al-Assad, is now on the front line of confrontation with the international terrorism.

Rodrigo Duterte urgently interrupted his important official visit to Moscow last week and came back to his country. The fighting actions that happened in the south of the Philippines made the country get involved into the international front (but still not universal) of the fight against international terrorism. The fight of the central government against separatists and Islamic groups has never ended here.

However, it is a local, slow lasting war which does not differ from the others. Also, it includes Duterte’s personal vendetta toward local drug dealers that are being fiercely eradicated by the security forces.

The new front of the caliphate

The situation has radically changed now. The terroristic group “Islamic State” (banned in Russia) has challenged the Philippine statehood. The same situation happened in Iraq and Syria.

The insurgent group Maute (known as Dawlah Islamiya Philippines) fights from the side of ISIS in the region. It is composed of different international terroristic groups from the South-East Asia and Arabic countries. 

The insurgents from the radical Islamic group Abu Sayyaf swore an oath of loyalty to ISIS. The Abu Sayyaf has been fighting against the central government and competing separatist movements since 1991 and it has been involved in kidnapping people so as to get a ransom and in trafficking drugs. And it is clear that President Duterte has become the “enemy number one” for the Abu Sayyaf.

It is obvious that the Philippines will become the hottest spot of the South-East Asia until the moment when ISIS will put together its forces to explode a region, for instance, it happened in Indonesia where terrorists conducted several severe attacks in Jakarta in January last year. There are dozens of radical Islamic groups in Indonesia now that swore an oath of loyalty to ISIS.

Fight for Marawi

President Rodrigo Duterte announced a military situation on the island Mindanao for 60 days on May 23. The government forces (commanded by Major General Eduardo Ano) were ordered to “clean” Muslim city Marawi (in the Lanao Southern Province, population- 200 thousand). According to the intelligence information, the leaders of the Maute and Abu Sayyaf located there. The number of insurgents in the city and its surrounding areas was about 500 thousand.

The US announced an award of 5 million dollars for the head of the Abu Sayyaf’s leader, Isnilon Hapilon. The military command confirms that Hapilon has met ISIS leaders from Malaysia and Indonesia so as to discuss perspectives for deploying the large scale front of the caliphate in the Philippine islands.

The confrontation of security officials and terrorists turned into street fights with heavy armor. Most of local people ran away to the near city Iligan that was blocked by the security force so as not to let the insurgents get into it.

The aircrafts and attack helicopters of the Philippine Air force joined them in attacking the city. More than hundred people were killed, 20 citizens were among them. The Philippine security force confirmed the death of 11 soldiers and four policemen.

The official spokesperson of the Philippine Military force, Brigade General Restituto Padilla confirms that no matter what information is presented in the media and social media, the military force is controlling almost the whole city Marawi except “some areas”. The military and police subdivisions are pushing insurgents away from local villages.

What is next?

The Philippines is a catholic country, only 5% of population is Muslim Sunnites. This group belongs to the nation Moro that mostly live in the South and South-West of Mindanao. The law dated to 1989 allowed to create an autonomy Muslim area that was included in the Philippines.

The separatists-Moro have been fighting against Manila since 1970. The Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) and several military separatist groups separated from them are acting here. Also, the Abu Sayyaf separated from MNLF in 1991.

The Central government did not manage to reach piece with the Moro despite that fact that it tried several times. Although, their activity decreased a lot when the government signed with MILF a temporary peaceful agreement in 2011.

The Philippine government does not admit such groups as the Maute and Abu Sayyaf and fights to eradicate them. The small group Ansar al-Khilafah submitted to ISIS was totally destroyed and it does not exist anymore, according to the military officials.

President Duterte called the representatives of all military forces of “irreconcilable opposition” for fighting against ISIS in the Philippines islands and suggested creating a new national militia with the same financial support as a regular army has.

“You will serve as our soldiers do and will have the same salary and social welfare. We will build houses for your families in your home towns”, he promised.

Duterte clearly understands that despite victorious announcements it will be hard to defeat the Islamists without the Moro support, taking into account the areas of military actions (mountains and jungles) and that most of the Muslims support the Moro. The events happened in Marawi showed that the Maute and Abu Sayyaf felt very comfortable there. From the other side, there are no benefits for the leaders of the opposition to create a new caliphate on their territory.

If Duerte cannot agree with them, the country might face a hard, long-lasting war as ISIS will not have problems to find new fighters in this region.

- Source : Ivan Konovalov