PNP bares Maute Group, ISIS’s shift to ‘lone wolf’ attacks in Mindanao

From the Business Mirror (Feb 26): PNP bares Maute Group, ISIS’s shift to ‘lone wolf’ attacks in Mindanao

It will take years before any terrorist group can carry out another attack similar to the scale and magnitude of the Marawi siege, but the government is not letting its guard down by acting against the recruitment of the Islamic State and its affiliated groups of new members, National Police (PNP) chief Director General Ronald M. dela Rosa said on Monday.

The PNP chief was reacting to the arrest of Juromee Dongon, widow of the late Malaysian terrorist Zulkifli Bin Hir alias Marwan, who was apprehended last Sunday in Tubod, Lanao del Norte, on charges that she had been recruiting members for the terrorist group.

“It will take some time. Large- scale attacks like Marawi will take months or years in the making before it can be carried out,” dela Rosa said, but added the PNP is taking measures so that it could be prevented.

“What we are only guarding now is the threat coming from the remaining members of the Maute-ISIS [Islamic State of Iraq and Syria], those pocket attacks, lone-wolf attacks, because they can be easily carried out,” he said.

Reports said earlier that another attack, possibly in the likes of Marawi, may happen again in Mindanao, but dela Rosa doused off such reports, saying the PNP is doing everything it can in order so that the rebellion that flattened Marawi City in Lanao del Norte will not be repeated anywhere else in the region.

“Our intelligence is validating that… well, all the major key cities in Mindanao are candidates to become Marawi Part 2, that is why our director for operations is in Davao doing the signing for the security and defense of the city,” the PNP chief said.

“It [intelligence validation] will be replicated in other key cities in Mindanao in order to ensure that there will be no repeat of the Marawi siege in Mindanao,” he added.

Dela Rosa confirmed reports about the recruitment of terrorist members in Lanao provinces, and this is what the government is already addressing.

“They were recruiting for them to have forces and, when they already have enough forces for them to mount another siege, then they could possibly do a Marawi Part 2,” he said.

“So we should address that; that they could not recruit forces,” he added.

https://businessmirror.com.ph/pnp-bares-maute-group-isiss-shift-to-lone-wolf-attacks-in-mindanao/