Recent Appearances...

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Recent Appearances...

Southeast Asia

Philippine military denies killing Moro Islamic Liberation Front members in weekend clash

2023-06-22

[BenarNews] The Philippine military defended itself Wednesday against allegations that it killed members of a former Moslem guerrilla group, which had signed a peace deal with Manila in 2014, during a weekend shootout in the south.

Philippine officials say the seven people slain during the clash with government forces in Maguindanao on Sunday were members of the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters
...a MILF splinter group aligned with the Islamic State...
(BIFF), a pro-Islamic State

Link

Home Front: WoT

Pre-trial hearings resume for SEAsian suspects held at Guantanamo

2023-04-25

[BenarNews] Prosecutors preparing a case against three Southeast Asians incarcerated at Guantanamo Bay will finish sharing evidence with defense attorneys in January 2024, lawyers said Monday, illustrating the glacial pace of progress toward trial for men held at the controversial prison since 2006.

Indonesian Encep Nurjaman (also known as Hambali

...real name Riduan Isamuddin, close personal friend of Osama bin Laden, one of the founders of Jemaah Islamiyah and the planner of the 2002 Bali bombings. He was captured with the help of a mid-Eastern intel service, shipped to Guantanamo to rot but he'll likely be released eventually because that was a long time ago and we were all so much younger then...
) and Malaysians Nazir bin Lep

...more formally Mohammed Nazir Bin Lep, informally Lillie. He’s one of Hambali’s lieutenants — they were captured together in Thailand in 2003...

and Farik bin Amin

... another Hambali lieutenant, he’s known more formally as Mohd Farik Bin Amin, his nom de guerre was Zubair Zaid and while it’s uncertain whether he was captured with the other two, the three spent years with the same interrogators. His cousin was master bomb maker Zulkifli Abdhir, called Marwan, who provided senior management and work product for the Kumpulan Mujahidin Malaysia, Jemaah Islamiyah, and the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters until he intersected a hail of Philippine bullets in 2015...

were present in the courtroom at the U.S. military facility in Cuba for proceedings witnessed by news hounds via video link to Fort Meade, a military base about an hour northeast of Washington. The men face charges linked to terrorist bombings in Indonesia in 2002 and 2003.

Lead prosecutor Col. George C. Kraehe said his team was seeking to "get this case tried on the merits by March 2025."

Earlier, Brian Bouffard, who represents bin Lep, questioned the government’s pace in presenting evidence to the defense teams. Lawyers for bin Amin and Nurjaman raised similar issues.

"We are trying to uncover the reasons for delay after delay after delay," Bouffard told the court.

Military Judge Hayes C. Larsen noted the defense concerns about late filings.

Kraehe said his team was working to gather evidence for the trial, adding that it was working on this even during the hearing.

"This is not unusual in a national security case," he said.

Kraehe said that about 90% of the evidence had been turned over to the defense, and the remaining 10% was highly classified. Because of that, steps need to be taken before it is turned over to defense, he said, adding that he expected to finish doing so by late January 2024.

Referred to as "alien unprivileged enemy belligerents" in some court documents, Nurjaman, bin Amin and bin Lep face charges related to twin bombings that killed 202 people in Bali in October 2002 — Indonesia’s deadliest terror attack to date — and a bombing at the J.W. Marriott hotel in Jakarta in 2003.

Following their 2003 arrests in Thailand, the three were sent to secret CIA black sites before being moved to the Guantanamo Bay prison in 2006. A U.S. Senate report released in 2014 found that each was tortured during his time in the black sites.

INTERPRETATION ISSUES
Monday’s hearing — the first of three days scheduled — began with prosecutors questioning Larsen, who will be leaving the bench in June to assume command of the Navy’s Defense Service Office West. He said he did not have any information about who would take over the trial.

Twenty minutes into the hearing, Bouffard and Christine Funk, who represents bin Amin, complained — as they have done throughout the legal process — of inadequate translation services, saying their clients were hearing Bahasa Indonesia interpretation instead of their national language, Bahasa Malaysia.

Later, the two lawyers told Larsen that English words were being intermixed with the translations.

"It’s a tired refrain," Larsen responded, dismissing the complaint.

During their two-day August 2021 arraignment, lawyers for the three men spent much of the time protesting before Larsen regarding the poor quality of interpreting.

Larsen ordered military prosecutors to hire and assign qualified interpreters for any upcoming court action.

Link

Southeast Asia

5 suspected IS-linked militants killed in govt assault in southern Philippines

2023-03-28

[BenarNews] Five suspected Filipino Death Eaters with the local the Islamic State

One was named Mohammed and the other Mahamoud.

Citing information from the informants, Almorato said DI members apparently were planning to detonate the IEDs at populated areas in Maguindanao and Cotabato provinces at the start of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan last Wednesday.

Materials used in the manufacture of IEDs, a .45-caliber pistol and Garand rifle ammunition were found at the lair, Almorato said.

The DI group is composed mostly of Death Eaters belonging to a faction from the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters
...a MILF splinter group aligned with the Islamic State...
, a splinter group from the ex-separatist force Moro Islamic Liberation Front,

(MILF), so go ahead and snicker...

which controls an autonomous region in the south.

Link

Southeast Asia

1 soldier killed, another wounded in violence in southern Philippines

2023-03-23

And so Ramadan begins.

[BenarNews] Violence marred the eve of the Moslem holy month of Ramadan in the southern Philippines after suspects from a pro-Islamic State

Link

Southeast Asia

Philippine military blames IS-linked group for deadly bus bombing in south

2022-11-08

[BenarNews] The Philippine military on Monday blamed the Filipino unit of the Islamic State

...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that they were al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're really very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear western pols talk they're not really Moslems....
murderous Moslem group for the bombing of a passenger bus that left one person dead and injured 11 others at the weekend in the volatile south.

The vehicle from the Yellow Bus Line, with 29 passengers aboard, was approaching Tacurong City in Sultan Kudarat province when the home-made bomb went off at noon on Sunday, regional military commander Maj. Gen. Roy Galido said.

"This is a cowardly act of the terrorist group and peace spoilers that put the lives of innocent civilians in danger and doing so is a violation of both human rights
...which are usually open to widely divergent definitions...
and international humanitarian law," Galido said.

"In this regard, we are working with the police Sherlocks and ready to assist them in law enforcement operations to neutralize these terrorists."

Philippine National Police spokeswoman Col. Jean Fajardo said the likely motive was extortion. She noted that the same bus line was attacked in a May bombing that maimed two passengers.

"Before the bombing incident, the management of the Yellow Bus received a call. Apparently they are extorting money from the bus company," she told news hounds in Manila.

Galido identified the suspects as members of the southern-based group Daulah Islamiyah, the Filipino term for Islamic State.

It consists of fighters from several Filipino murderous Moslem factions, including the Maute Group, which had provided men for the siege of Marawi City by pro-IS snuffies in 2017 that left more than 1,200 people, mostly combatants, dead.

The military said the latest bombing could also be a diversionary tactic by the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters
...a MILF splinter group aligned with the Islamic State...
(BIFF), another pro-IS group, to ease military pressure against them. Many of BIFF’s fighters often operate with other groups, such as Daulah Islamiyah.

Suspected members of a BIFF unit have been on the run from military personnel since Saturday, when government troops killed two snuffies during an operation in Shariff Aguak, a town in Maguindanao province. The military launched the offensive in retaliation for a murderous Moslem attack that killed one soldier as soldiers manned a bridge in the area on Friday.

Rommel Banlaoi, a counter-terrorism analyst at the Philippine Institute for Peace, Violence and Terrorism Research, said BIFF was gearing up for more attacks after its leader, Abu Turaife, allegedly released a new video urging his followers to press on with a jihad in the south.

Turaife is one of the hardcore leaders of BIFF, a splinter group of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), which signed a peace deal with Manila in 2014 and now controls a Moslem autonomous area in the south.

"The remaining followers of Turaife have acquired the skill of bomb making from their previous colleagues in the MILF," Banlaoi said.

Link

Southeast Asia

Wanted BIFF militant surrenders in southern Philippines

2022-10-06

[BenarNews] An aide to one of the Philippines’ most wanted bomb-makers, the late hard boy Abdul Basit Usman, has surrendered to authorities in the volatile southern region of Mindanao, officials said Wednesday.

The suspect, identified as Manap Mamaluba, is a member of the Islamic State

...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that they were al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're really very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear western pols talk they're not really Moslems....
-linked Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters
...a MILF splinter group aligned with the Islamic State...
(BIFF) hard boy group and was on the run from authorities for years, according to the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI).

Mamaluba surrendered two weeks ago, but this was only made public after he was subjected to verification and questioning this week, said Nicanor Suarez, front man for the investigation bureau.

BIFF is a splinter of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), a former separatist guerrilla group whose leaders now control an autonomous region in the southern Philippines. The surrender occurred in the area formally known as the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region of Moslem Mindanao (BAARM), according to a statement from the bureau.

"The surrender of Mamaluba was made possible through his uncle, a certain Commander Tiger of the MILF," Suarez said. "Currently, the subject is under the custody of the Municipality of Datu Abdullah Sangki."

The exact identity of Commander Tiger was not revealed, although he is believed to be one of the field commanders of the MILF in the southern province of Maguindanao, intelligence officials said.

Officials did not release more details about Mamaluba.

His boss, Usman, was a top hard boy who had made it onto the U.S. State Department’s list of wanted terrorists. Security experts say Usman had trained many Lions of Islam in bomb making, including those affiliated with Jemaah Islamiyah.

JI, an Indonesia-based hard boy group and the Southeast Asian affiliate of al-Qaeda, was blamed for the October 2002 Bali bombings - that country’s deadliest terror attack to date.

In January 2015, Usman escaped a raid by the police Special Action Force (SAF) in the town of Mamasapano in Mindanao that resulted in the death of Zulkifli bin Hir (alias Marwan), a Malaysian terror suspect who was hiding in the southern Philippines.

Forty-four SAF commandos were killed during the botched operation. They became caught in a deadly firefight with members of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front who thought they had come under attack.

The Philippine military killed Usman three months later.

The BIFF, the splinter faction, has pledged allegiance to the Islamic State bad boy group, and many of its members are separately wanted for other crimes, including kidnapping for ransom and extortion.

Col. Abdulrasad Sirajan, the military’s regional front man, told BenarNews that their crackdown against Mamaluba’s colleagues was continuing but government forces remained open to those who were willing to surrender.

"Our operation is going on without rest, but on the other hand, we welcome those who want to live a normal life," he said, adding that about 360 BIFF fighters had surrendered since last year in Maguindanao.

In January 2021, BIFF Lions of Islam carried out two roadside kaboomings that killed three people and injured dozens more in the south.

In 2017, hundreds of pro-IS fighters from Southeast Asia, the Middle East and elsewhere took over the southern Philippine city of Marawi for five months. Some 1,200 people were killed in a battle that ensued between the Lions of Islam and government forces.

While BIFF did not send guerrillas to join that battle, it launched diversionary attacks at the time, according to officials.

Link

Southeast Asia

Philippine police hunt for 6 IS-linked militants in officers’ killings

2022-09-03

[BenarNews] Six members of a holy warrior group linked to Islamic State

...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that they were al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're really very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear western pols talk they're not really Moslems....
hard boyz were responsible for killing a police chief and his aide during a roadside ambush in the southern Philippines earlier this week, and a manhunt is under way, officials said Friday.

National police chief Rodolfo Azurin Jr. told news hounds he had directed officers to coordinate with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), the country’s former largest separatist group that controls a Moslem autonomous region in the south, to catch the suspects in the attack in Maguindanao province.

The suspects are believed to be former MILF guerrillas who joined the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters
...a MILF splinter group aligned with the Islamic State...
(BIFF), a splinter group that has rejected the regional grinding of the peace processor with the government and is allied with a Philippine faction of the Islamic State (IS) group.

"Our hot pursuit operation is ongoing. As far as the identification of the suspects, they are BIFF. I have directed our men to file the case against these perpetrators," Azurin said without identifying each individual.

The suspects were blamed for killing police Lt. Col. Reynaldo Samson and his aide, Cpl. Salipudin Endab, outside of Ampatuan town on Tuesday. Three other coppers were maimed in the ambush and ensuing firefight.

Samson was the local chief of police.

The officers were on their way to arrest a narco identified as Abdulnasser Guianid, who was believed to have close ties with holy warrior organizations, police said.

The six suspects involved in the ambush also have existing arrest warrants, Azurin said.

"Right now, we are still waiting for the response of the MILF who have to show sincerity because we have signed the peace pact," Azurin said.

As part of a pact agreed to under a peace deal struck between Manila and the MILF in 2014, officers can enter the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Moslem Mindanao (BARMM), which the Moro Islamic Liberation Front controls.

"They should help the (national) government, which has already accommodated them. This time, we need reciprocity from them. So surrendering these people is part of that reciprocity that we are expecting," he said.

Senior MILF member Mohagher Iqbal, who served as the former rebel group’s chief peace negotiator, said the suspects are not members of the MILF, but of the splinter group.

"Rest assured, our men on the ground will assist authorities in hunting down the suspects behind the ambush," he told BenarNews.

Abdulraof Macacua, another senior MILF member, said its forces were directed to cooperate with police and the military if troops are dispatched to MILF strongholds to search for the suspects.

In a separate statement, BARMM front man Naguib Sinarimbo denied any MILF involvement in the attack.

"The MILF has nothing to do with it," he said.

Link

Southeast Asia

Gunmen kill police chief, aide in southern Philippine ambush

2022-08-31

[BenarNews] Unidentified gunman killed a local police chief and his aide, and maimed three other coppers during a roadside ambush in the southern Philippines on Tuesday while the officers were on their way to arrest a suspect, authorities said.

No one grabbed credit for the attack, but a separatist hard boy group that swore allegiance to the so-called Islamic State

...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that they were al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're really very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear western pols talk they're not really Moslems....
bully boy group operates in the area around Ampatuan, the town in Maguindanao province where the incident occurred, police said.

The button men opened fire on the marked vehicle of the arresting officers at about 10 a.m. in a village outside of Ampatuan. A shootout ensued that led to the deaths of Lt. Col. Reynaldo Samson, the local police chief, and his aide, Cpl. Salipudin Endab.

"Someone leaked the information about our operation," Brig. Gen. John Gano Guyguyon, the police director in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Moslem Mindanao (BARMM), told news hounds, confirming the killings.

"We condemn to the highest degree this incident and we condole with the families of the victims," he added.

A photo circulating on social media showed a police car riddled with bullets along the road in Kapinpilan village, with one of the two slain officers on the ground.

The police were supposed to serve a warrant against a long-wanted narco, identified as Abdulnasser Guianid, when they were ambushed, Guyguyon said. The maimed police, he said, were out of danger, and a manhunt was under way for Guianid.

Guyguyon said it was well known that hard boy groups such as the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters
...a MILF splinter group aligned with the Islamic State...
(BIFF) operate in the fringes of Maguindanao province. In addition, he said, smaller gangs of former separatist rebels also work in the area, sometimes as guns-for-hire for other groups.

BIFF has been blamed for several attacks, including bombings in public areas. It is a splinter group of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, which signed a peace deal with Manila in 2014 and now controls the autonomous Moslem region.

"We have been telling our men to be cautious in their mission because this group is still active. We assure the public that we will not let this pass. We will do everything to keep the peace," Guyguyon said.

The incident on Tuesday occurred in the same town where 58 people, including 32 journalists, were killed by members of an influential clan in 2009. The victims of that attack were accompanying the wife of Esmael Mangudadatu, who had challenged the patriarch of the Ampatuan clan for the top political post in the province.

In December 2019, a court sentenced to life imprisonment 28 members of Ampatuan clam after more than a decade of trial.

In predominantly Moslem areas of Mindanao island, it is not unusual for families to settle differences through clan wars known as "rido." Hostilities could last for decades until a peace pact is signed, usually through mediation by religious leaders along with a cash payment.

Political rivalries, ancestral land claims, disputes over local fiefdoms as well as election-related feuds often spur clan wars in Mindanao.

Link

Home Front: WoT

Guantanamo court sets pre-trial hearing for suspects in Bali bombings

2022-08-23

[BenarNews] An Indonesian and two Malaysians who have been incarcerated for more than 15 years at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, on terrorism charges linked to the 2002 Bali bombings are scheduled to appear in court for a pre-trial hearing in late October, U.S. defense officials announced Monday.

If all goes to schedule, Indonesian Encep Nurjaman (also known as Hambali

...more formally Mohammed Nazir Bin Lep, informally Lillie. He’s one of Hambali’s lieutenants — they were captured together in Thailand in 2003...

and Farik Bin Amin

will appear in a military court at Guantanamo from Oct. 31 to Nov. 4 — in what would be only their second court appearance since their arrests in Thailand in 2003. Their court hearing will take place a little more than two weeks after the 20th anniversary of the Bali bombings — the deadliest terrorist attack in Indonesia’s history.

When the three were arrested 19 years ago, they were sent to CIA black sites, where they were tortured, before being transferred to the U.S. military prison in Cuba in 2006, according to a 2014 U.S. Senate report.

The military court and the U.S. Department of Defense did not release details of the planned hearing for the three, "all of whom have been charged jointly in connection with their alleged roles in the 2002 and 2003 bombings in Indonesia," in a notice to media interested in covering the proceedings at the U.S. Naval Base in Guantanamo.

The trio first appeared at a military court there during their arraignment in August 2021. At the time, their lawyers lodged a protest before military Judge Hayes Larsen about the poor quality of the audio translations their clients were receiving.

Referred to as "alien unprivileged enemy belligerents" in some court documents, Nurjaman, bin Lep and bin Amin face charges related to twin bombings that killed 202 people in Bali in October 2002 and a bombing at the J.W. Marriott hotel in Jakarta in 2003. None of the men entered a plea to the charges against them following their arraignment last August.

In an effort to improve translations, Larsen ordered military prosecutors to hire and assign qualified interpreters for any upcoming court action.

"The defense teams all indicated they need assurances in order to be able to use their government-provided defense interpreters for attorney-client communications," Larsen wrote in a January court filing ahead of what was supposed to be a pre-trial hearing in late February.

Responding to the judge, prosecutors said in a Feb. 1 filing that they were seeking to hire four full-time interpreters, two for each language.

"Because of the uncertain timeline involved in obtaining clearances for new hires who do not have clearances, it is too speculative to estimate when fully cleared full-time interpreters will be available to assist the commission," they wrote.

James Hodes, who represents Hambali, blasted the prosecutors, noting they had 18 years to prepare their case against his client, which included hiring "qualified commission interpreters."

"This is what you are tasked with and this is what you have failed to provide," he told BenarNews earlier this year while calling the lack of interpreters a "huge obstacle for a fair trial."

Hodes could not immediately be reached on Monday for comment on the proposed court dates.

Link

Southeast Asia

Philippine military kills suspected IS militant tied to bus bombing in south

2022-06-03

[BenarNews] Government troops killed an alleged pro-Islamic State

...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that they were al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're really very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear western pols talk they're not really Moslems....
Death Eater and captured another after a shootout in the southern Philippines, while hunting for suspects linked to a bus bombing last week, military officials said Thursday.

The military identified the suspects as Monir Lintukan and Randy Saro, and said they were members of Daulah Islamiyah, the local name for the Islamic State (IS) group. Lintukan was killed and Saro captured following the 30-minute shootout near M’lang, a town in Cotabato province.

"Due to our intensified intelligence gathering, we immediately tracked down the suspects, resulting in a firefight that killed one of them," army Col. Jovencio Gonzales told BenarNews.

Officials blamed the pair for having roles in the bombing of a bus that injured two people in Koronadal city, in South Cotabato province, on May 26 as well as a second kaboom that occurred at a vacant lot near a bus station in another town minutes later. No one was injured in the second explosion.

Gonzales said troops also recovered weapons and ammunition left behind by other Death Eaters.

The troops were conducting "focused military operations" when they encountered the Death Eaters, he said. The two suspects belonged to a Daulah Islmiyah, a faction within the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters
...a MILF splinter group aligned with the Islamic State...
(BIFF) Death Eater group that professes loyalty to IS.

Many BIFF members are wanted for a string of crimes, including kidnapping for ransom and extortion, according to the military.

Military officials had previously blamed murderous Moslems linked to BIFF for two roadside kaboomings that killed three and injured dozens of people in January 2021.

And this past January, a 5-year-old boy was killed and six others, including his two younger siblings, were maimed in a bus kaboom in Aleosan town. Since then, at least six people were maimed in April when a homemade bomb went kaboom! aboard a passenger bus in Parang town.

"Your army along with other government forces will continue to pursue those suspects responsible for the bombings here in our area," said Brig. Gen. Eduardo Gubat, acting commander of the 6th Infantry Division and the military’s Joint Task Force Central.

The JTF Central and the infantry division "will sustain the military operations until the remnants of the terrorist group operating in South and Southcentral Mindanao will be neutralized and the area will be free from any terror group," he said.

Link

Southeast Asia

Bus bomb injures 2 in southern Philippines

2022-05-29

[BenarNews] An explosion believed to be caused by an improvised bomb destroyed a passenger bus in the southern Philippines on Thursday, injuring two passengers, police and military officials said.

The vehicle, owned by the Yellow Bus Line Inc., was on a busy highway in Koronadal city when the device went off at noon, they said. A few minutes later, a second bomb went kaboom! in a vacant lot near a bus station in Tacurong city, but did not cause any injuries.

"There was no threat received by the bus firm. Our experts are investigating the incident," Koronadal Mayor Eliordo Ogena said, adding that the two passengers suffered non-life threatening injuries.

Maj. Andrew Linao, public information officer for the regional military command, said the earth-shattering kaboom was caused by an "improvised bomb."

"There’s a directive to all units to intensify checkpoint operations and intelligence monitoring," he said.

No one immediately grabbed credit for the bombings, but members of Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters
...a MILF splinter group aligned with the Islamic State...
(BIFF), a bully boy group that has pledged allegiance to the Islamic State

Link

Southeast Asia

Philippine military: 2 suspected Muslim militants killed in Mindanao shootout

2022-05-20

[BenarNews] Government forces killed two runaway bully boys, who were suspected of supplying firearms to Moslem holy warrior groups in the southern Philippines, during a shootout in Mindanao and arrested two other suspects afterwards, military officials said Thursday.

The Army’s 6th Infantry Division, based in southern Maguindanao province, identified the slain suspects as Datu Romah Malang Mastura (alias Mamako) and Ebrahim Samama.

They died in a brief firefight that broke out as government soldiers and drug enforcement agents conducted a counter-narcotics operation in the town of Pigcawayan on Wednesday, said Maj. Gen. Juvymax Uy, the regional military chief.

"The exchange of fire lasted for about five minutes which resulted in the death of Mastura and Samama and the enemy withdrew towards the south direction," Uy told BenarNews.

The military identified the two suspects who were taken into custody after the shootout as Guiahed Akmad Toting and Ali Kamsa Guilay.

Mastura and Samama were among several inmates who had beat feet from a heavily secured prison facility in nearby Kidapawan City in 2017. Intelligence operatives had tracked their movements since then, and their group allegedly had widened its criminal operation to include drug trafficking and selling firearms to local groups allied with Islamic State

Link

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