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Chitchat Duterte's paying the price for ditching USA. But Xi Jinping no where to be seen. LOL!

kryonlight

Alfrescian (Inf)
Asset
Sorry Duterte, Chinese communist crooks are not going to help you. Hahahaha ...

ISIS-linked militants storm school, take hostages in south Philippines village

Dozens of hostages, including children, have been freed in a Philippines village after armed terrorists stormed a local school. The hostage situation was resolved after a day-long shootout with government troops. No civilian casualties are reported.
“The enemy made a hasty withdrawal, leaving behind 31 hostages, among them 12 youngsters,” a military spokesman, Brigadier General Restituto Padilla, said, as quoted by Reuters. 20 others, caught in the crossfire, have also been freed.

“It’s over… but we’re also on guard because they might carry out other attacks,” Padilla added.

Government troops have been engaging members of the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF) after the terrorists partly overran the village of Malagakit, located just outside of Pigcawayan town, Chief Inspector Realan Mamon said.

According to Padilla, 50 Islamist fighters raided the Christian-Muslim village. Earlier police reports said there were nearly 300 armed men.

The police chief confirmed that the militants entered the village shortly after 5:00am on Wednesday.

The assailants, however, claimed that they did not take people hostage, but were merely protecting them from government troops, promising to release civilians.

“We protected them [the hostages] from the bullets from [the] Army. We will release them later. We did not use them as human shields,” BIFF spokesman Abu Mama Misri told the Inquirer on the phone.

Pigcawayan Mayor Eliseo Garsesa revealed that authorities had received intelligence reports about text message chatter that the “armed groups were coming.” Garsesa, however, said that such messages were common, and it could not always be verified, the Manila Times reports.

Initially, the Philippines Army was unable to determine whether there had been any captives and whether students and teachers were among them.

The gunmen targeted an army outpost and a patrol base of a pro-government militia, before being repelled by army units, Restituto Padilla said, according to the Sun Star. The raid, he added, was aimed at disrupting the ongoing government offensive against the ISIS-linked Maute group.

“If this is a diversionary move, it’s not the first by these BIFF gunmen,” Padilla said. “They have tried to attack more than once and all have been thwarted.”

For almost a month now, the Philippines Army has been battling radical Islamist militants in Marawi, the capital of the country’s second largest island, Mindanao.

Apart from the main Maute terrorist group, which has pledged allegiance to Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL), there are around 20 other foreign and local jihadist cells, including BIFF, operating in Mindanao, Solicitor General Jose Calida revealed on Monday.

“In addition to ISIS-linked local rebel groups, there are also ISIS cell groups that operate all over Mindanao. These cell groups conduct coordinated attacks with the aforesaid rebel groups,” Calida said.

The death toll from the fighting in the Philippines has so far surpassed 300. According to official government figures, 225 militants, 59 soldiers, and 26 civilians have been killed in the clashes.

On Tuesday, President Rodrigo Duterte warned of a full-scale civil war if the ongoing violence spills into other parts of Mindanao. He urged the local separatist group, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, which was recently offered some kind of autonomy, to “take care of the area they want” and join the fight against foreign-influenced Maute and other terrorist cells.

“Because if there’s civil war, there would be killings. Here in Mindanao, there are more Christians and they have better guns. They are buying. The rich ones, they’re stockpiling guns,” Duterte said, according to the Inquirer. “That’s what’s dangerous. To prevent a communal war, we really need to stop this.”
 

Ang4MohTrump

Alfrescian
Loyal
Re: Duterte's paying the price for ditching USA. But Xi Jinping no where to be seen.

Bull Shit!

Militants already released all hostages and fled. Fear Duterte because xijinping sent 22,000 FOC automated rifles enough to arm 1.5 division of infantry. The Operation is in Marawi is closing phase, as militants fled, and are trying to take cover in refuge with sympathizers help. Duterte's men are rounding them up.





http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/201...-militants-storm-school-southern-philippines/



Pro-Islamic State militants end hostage drama at school in southern Philippines


Members of the Philippine police special action force ride in an army truck on their way to the frontline in Marawi
Members of the Philippine police special action force ride in an army truck on their way to the frontline in Marawi Credit: AFP

Our Foreign Staff

21 June 2017 • 3:27am

Pro-Islamic State militants stormed a town school in the southern Philippines early on Wednesday and briefly held several students hostage.

The attack happened on the same island where fighting between government troops and Islamist militants has entered its fifth week.

About 300 armed men, including members of the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF), launched the attack on a school in Pigcawayan town in North Cotabato province on Mindanao island.

After holding some students captive, the militants later withdrew with no reports of casualties.

"It's already resolved," Brigadier General Restituto Padilla told reporters. "They've withdrawn, they are no longer there. The school area is again safe."

However, Padilla also said the military was investigating whether five civilians were still being held by the militants. He said no children had been taken hostage.

Earlier, a spokesman for the militant group said they had taken civilians to a safe place after a gunfight erupted with troops and did not intend to hold them.

Chief Inspector Realan Mamon, the police chief of Pigcawayan town, said the attack could have been be a diversionary tactic to ease pressure on the militants in Marawi.

Pigcawayan is 120 miles south of Marawi City, where BIFF militants, along with fighters from other groups allied to the Islamic State group, have been holed up and fighting the Philippines military.

Nearly 350 people have been killed in the month of fighting, according to an official count.

Philippine aircraft and troops launched a renewed push against the militants in Marawi City on Tuesday and a military spokesman said the aim was to clear the area by the weekend Eid festival, although there was no deadline.

The seizure of Marawi and the dogged fight to regain control of it has alarmed Southeast Asian nations which fear Islamic State - on a backfoot in Iraq and Syria - is trying to set up a stronghold in the Muslim south of the mainly Roman Catholic Philippines that could threaten the whole region.


http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/asiapacific/philippines-urges-militants-to-surrender-8894934



Philippines urges militants to surrender
A Philippine Air Force MD-520MG Defender light attack helicopter fires rockets at militant positions in Marawi on the southern island of Mindanao on May 30, 2017 AFP/TED ALJIBE
30 May 2017 01:47PM
(Updated: 30 May 2017 10:07PM)
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MARAWI: Philippine authorities on Tuesday (May 30) warned militants occupying parts of a southern city to surrender or die, as attack helicopters pounded the gunmen's strongholds where up to 2,000 residents were feared trapped.

More than 100 people have been confirmed killed in the conflict, which began last week when gunmen waving black flags of the Islamic State (IS) group rampaged through the mostly Muslim-populated city of Marawi.

President Rodrigo Duterte declared martial law across the entire southern region of Mindanao, home to roughly 20 million people, in response to the crisis as he warned that local militant groups were uniting behind IS and becoming a major security threat.

But the militants, initially estimated by the nation's defence chief to number just 100, have withstood eight days of intense air assaults and street-to-street combat, prompting the government's threats on Tuesday.

"We call on the remaining terrorists to surrender while there is an opportunity," military spokesman Brigadier-General Restituto Padilla said in a statement. "For the terrorists, not surrendering will mean their sure death."
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Padilla also told AFP the surrender call warning was aimed at limiting the loss of more lives and property.

Up to 2,000 residents were trapped in areas held by the militants, according to the local government, and the International Committee of the Red Cross had voiced alarm they would be caught in the bombing raids or crossfire.

The militants also took a priest and up to 14 other people hostage at the start of the crisis, and their fate remains unknown.

The militants released a video in which they threatened to kill the hostages, according to a report by the SITE Intelligence Group on Monday that could not be verified.

And clashes on Tuesday appeared to be as intense as previous days, according to an AFP reporter who followed security forces who had to run from militants' sniper fire coming from nearby buildings.

The militants, initially estimated to number just 100, have withstood eight days of intense air assaults and street-to-street combat, prompting the Philippine government to call on them to surrender AFP/TED ALJIBE

Military helicopters fired rockets repeatedly on that part of the city on Tuesday morning, and black smoke rose from the buildings that were apparently hit.

The gunmen were being backed by foreign fighters, including Malaysians, Indonesians and Singaporeans, authorities said.

RISING DEATH TOLL

The militants had killed at least 19 civilians, while 20 security forces and 65 gunmen had died, according to the military.

The death toll looked likely to climb, with soldiers reporting the smell of corpses in a public market still being held by the militants.

Martin Thalmann, deputy head of the ICRC's Philippine delegation who is in Marawi, also told AFP on Monday his staff had received reports from people trapped inside the militants' areas that residents had died from stray bullets and sickness.

The violence began when dozens of gunmen went on a rampage in response to an attempt by security forces to arrest Isnilon Hapilon, a veteran Filipino militant regarded as the local leader of IS.

Hapilon, a senior member of the Abu Sayyaf kidnap-for-ransom gang, is on the US government's list of most-wanted terrorists. He was being protected in Marawi by the local Maute group, which has pledged allegiance to IS.

Hapilon, the Maute and other militants had been planning a major attack on Marawi, one of the few Islamic cities in the mainly Catholic Philippines with a population of 200,000 people, armed forces chief General Eduardo Ano said.

He said they were planning to launch the assault to coincide with the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which began on the weekend, but the raid on Hapilon triggered them to attack earlier, according to Ano.

Muslim separatist rebellion in the southern Philippines has claimed more than 120,000 lives since the 1970s.

The main Muslim rebel groups have signed accords with the government aimed at forging a final peace, giving up their separatist ambitions in return for autonomy.

The Maute, the Abu Sayyaf and other hardline groups are not interested in negotiating and have in recent years looked to IS to help them.

The Marawi violence was intended to highlight their credentials to IS, security analysts have said.

Duterte said Saturday he was prepared to enforce martial law for as long as was necessary to end the terrorist threat.
Source: AFP/rw/ec
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http://thediplomat.com/2016/12/duterte-says-philippines-will-accept-china-arms-deal/


Duterte Says Philippines Will Accept China Arms Deal


Announcement comes weeks after controversy erupted over rifle agreement with Washington.
By Prashanth Parameswaran
December 13, 2016



Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has said that his country will accept firearms being pushed by China weeks after controversy erupted over a rifle agreement with the United States.

Since coming to office in June, Duterte has been pursuing what his aides term a more independent foreign policy, which, thus far, has meant more distance from the United States, the Philippines’ traditional ally, and warmer ties with China and Russia (See: “The Limits of Duterte’s China-US Rebalance“). Though he is just the latest in a succession of Philippine presidents trying to balance ties between major powers, the initial ferocity of his anti-American rhetoric and the speed at which he has tried to advance ties with Beijing have been striking (See: “Why the Philippines’ Rodrigo Duterte Hates America“).

On Sunday, during a visit to the Armed Forces of the Philippines’ Northern Luzon Command at Camp Aquino in Tarlac City, Duterte signaled that the Philippines would be finalizing a firearms deal with China that would boost bilateral security ties.

“China is pressing me that the firearms are ready. I will accept them. They rushed these for us,” Duterte said.

Further underscoring the pressure from the Chinese side, Duterte said the rifles were ready and that Beijing wanted them shipped immediately, making it “obvious that China wants to give this to us.”

The terms that China had offered, Duterte said, was a grant payable in 25 years, which he characterized as “really practically giving.” He also did not fail to emphasize the fact that with China willing to give the arms to the Philippines on such favorable terms, there was no need for Manila to look elsewhere.

“So it’s really very easy for us,” he said. “We do not need to ask for these from other [countries] because they [China] are willing to give it,” he said.


Though he did not identify these “other countries,” controversy had erupted last month over the Philippines’ purchase of 26,000 assault rifles from the United States. Duterte initially said in early November that he had ordered the Philippine National Police (PNP) to cancel the order and that Manila could get the arms from somewhere else if the United States applied pressure on human rights in the wake of his controversial war on drugs. But shortly after the U.S. presidential election, PNP chief Dela Rosa told a news conference that Duterte had told him to continue the deal, apparently because there would be a new president in Washington.

In terms of next steps, Duterte said that he would send Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana to finalize the deal with China, though he was vague about exactly how things would proceed in relation to the Philippine Department of National Defense (DND). Lorenzana became the first Philippine defense chief to visit Russia since diplomatic ties were established in 1976 and had said that Manila would conduct a study to see whether a separate agreement for sniper rifles could be forged with Moscow.

On Monday, local media outlets reported that Raymundo Elefante, the DND undersecretary for finance, munitions, installations, and material, had confirmed that Beijing made the offer but said the types of the firearms are still to be determined.

China’s Ambassador to the Philippines Zhao Jianhua also told reporters late Monday that though both sides were “exploring the possibilities” for providing what he termed “light arms” for counterterrorism and counternarcotics, talks were still at the initial stage and there was no agreement on price or the specific type of weapons.


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