Tough resistance from Maute affiliate raises Islamic State’s profile in Philippines

From the Washington Times (Sep 13): Tough resistance from Maute affiliate raises Islamic State’s profile in Philippines



Islamic State claimed over the weekend that its Philippine affiliate, known as the Maute group, killed 50 troops as government forces launched a massive offensive to drive militants out of Marawi. (Associated Press/File)

A Southeast Asian faction of the Islamic State is putting up an unexpectedly tough fight in the face of unrelenting military pressure from U.S.-backed counterterrorism forces in the Philippines, three months after the extremists stunned the region by seizing control of a major city in the southern part of the country.

Philippine military officials said this week that the five dozen or so militants still holding out in Marawi have begun putting out “feelers” on ending their resistance, but the terrorist group’s ability to hold out so long is reigniting concerns that the Islamic State will look to the Pacific to re-establish its self-proclaimed caliphate as it is pushed out of its strongholds in the Middle East.

Islamic State claimed over the weekend that its Philippine affiliate, known as the Maute group, killed 50 troops as government forces launched a massive offensive to drive militants out of Marawi. It was some of the heaviest fighting since the group took control of the city, 64 miles south of the provincial capital of Cagayan de Oro.

The enemy force is decreasing day by day and ending the crisis is only a matter of time, Brig. Gen. Rolando Bautista, commander of the troops in Marawi, told reporters this week.

Although the fighting may be winding down, the ferocity and duration of resistance put up by Islamic State forces trying to hold this city of 200,000 people have led analysts to consider that the terrorist group may be stronger than previously thought in the region.

“Notwithstanding the Philippine military’s widely anticipated Pyrrhic victory over the ISIS-inspired militants, darker clouds [can] be seen on the horizon,” Mark Davis Madarang Pablo, an analyst at the Philippines-based Albert del Rosario Institute, wrote Wednesday in The Diplomat. The analyst noted that the government lists 20 active terrorist cells allied to the Islamist force leading the Marawi resistance.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2017/sep/13/isis-affiliate-maute-a-tough-foe-for-philippines-u/