Published February 19, 2024
CAGAYAN DE ORO, Philippines (AP) – Philippine troops clashed with Muslim militants in a gunbattle that left at least seven soldiers and two rebels dead in a fog-shrouded hinterland in the south, military officials said Monday.
Military chief Gen. Romeo Brawner Jr. said four other soldiers were wounded in the army offensive Sunday against fighters of the Dawlah Islamiyah, a small armed group aligned with the Islamic State group, near Munai town in Lanao del Norte province.
Troops were hunting a still-unknown number of militants, who withdrew from the scene of the battle, military officials said. Brawner vowed to get justice for the slain and wounded soldiers.
“I assure their families and every Filipino that justice will be meted and all efforts will be exhausted in pursuit of the enemy,” Brawner said in a statement where he expressed condolences to the families of the soldiers.
“Our troops are motivated to finish the job and accomplish our mission of defeating local terrorist groups once and for all,” he said.
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SOURCE: www.dailymail.co.uk
RELATED: Seven dead in Philippines clashes with Islamist militants: Army
Police inspecting the site of a bomb attack inside a gymnasium at Mindanao State University in Marawi on Dec 3, 2023. PHOTO: AFP
Published February 19, 2024
MANILA – Six soldiers and at least one Islamist militant have been killed in the southern Philippines, an army spokesman said on Feb 19, as security forces hunted down fighters believed to have bombed a Catholic mass in December 2023.
The clashes took place on Feb 18 in the jungle near the town of Munai on Mindanao island, Philippine army spokesman Louie Dema-ala told AFP.
“This is part of the operation against the Dawlah Islamiyah. Unfortunately, we sustained casualties,” he said.
Four Philippine soldiers were also wounded, he said, while the retreating gunmen left behind the body of a slain comrade.
The Dawlah group is one of several small, armed Islamist factions that have pledged allegiance to the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), which claimed responsibility for a Dec 3, 2023, bombing of a Catholic mass in Marawi that killed at least four people and injured dozens of others.
The military said 10 other Dawlah members were killed in January, including the bombers’ alleged leader Khadafi Mimbesa.
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SOURCE: www.straitstimes.com
RELATED: Deadly Clash in the Philippines: Soldiers and Militants Collide in Munai, Mindanao
Published February 19, 2024
In Munai town, the southern Philippines’ battle against the IS-linked Dawlah Islamiyah group turned deadly. Six soldiers were killed in a two-hour operation following the group’s December 2023 Marawi bombing. Despite the loss, the military remains committed to eradicating extremism and honoring the fallen.
At the crack of dawn, in the remote reaches of Munai town on Mindanao island, the serene landscape was shattered by the echoes of gunfire. An operation against the Dawlah Islamiyah group, an organization that has declared its loyalty to the Islamic State, turned deadly. The confrontation claimed the lives of six valiant soldiers and at least one militant, marking another chapter in the southern Philippines’ long-standing battle against insurgency.
