Tuesday, April 15, 2014

The Philippines Goes On the Offensive

Earlier this month I wrote about the government of the Philippines and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front insurgent group signed a peace agreement. I saw this as good news and although there are still a few other insurgent/terrorist groups operation in the Philippines, the agreement will most likely lead to peace in the southern portion of the country in the long term.

Apparently, it's also freed up the government to allocate resources to going after Abu Sayyaf, the Al Qaida linked terrorist group known to conduct attacks in the Philippines. On Friday, the government launched an operation to capture Puruji Indama, a commander in Abu Sayyaf. This led to a day long gun battle in which 3 militants and 2 soldiers were killed. Yesterday, police conducted a raid targeting an Abu Sayyaf linked kidnapping cell, a raid which led to the detainment of a MILF commander (don't giggle).

Abu Sayyaf will likely retaliate shortly and I have no idea how the MILF will react to the arrest of one of their commanders, but it appears that the government has the upper hand along with the initiative for now.

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