One year after the siege of
Marawi, Islamic State militants from around the world continue to stream into
the southern Philippine island of Mindanao
Despite Islamic State’s failure
last year to establish a caliphate in the southern Philippine city of Marawi,
foreign militants continue to flock to the island of Mindanao, waiting in the
wings to strike anew.
Security analysts and military
officials say at least 100 foreign terrorist fighters are now holed up with a
range of local armed groups that have pledged their allegiance to Islamic State.
Filipino troops needed five
months to flush out Islamic State-allied Maute and Abu Sayyaf fighters from
their positions in Marawi, which one year later has yet to rise from the ashes
of the urban war that left its core in ruins.
Rommel Banlaoi, chair of the
Philippine Institute for Peace, Violence and Terrorism Research, claims in an
interview with Asia Times that Islamic State foreign fighters are now streaming
into Mindanao and that the situation is “getting worse.”
His claim is based on information
he collected over several months from state security agencies. “The entry of
FTFs (foreign terrorist fighters) to the Philippines continues despite the
liberation of Marawi,” Banlaoi told the Asia Times on October 30.
He also says that at least 60
have been identified by state agents through their aliases, while nearly 30
others are unidentified.
The figure is significantly
higher than the 48 foreign fighters that the Armed Forces of the Philippines’
intelligence unit said were operating in Mindanao as of January 2018.
A repeat of last year’s
months-long siege would be disastrous for the Philippines and the wider region.
The urban war left some 1,100 individuals dead, mostly Islamist gunmen,
including 32 foreign fighters, according to the Philippine military.
Over 350,000 civilians were
displaced by the war that began on May 23 last year, prompting President
Rodrigo Duterte to place all of Mindanao under rights-curbing martial law. The
order will remain in effect until the end of this year.
Duterte, the country’s first
president from Mindanao who claims to have meranaw (Marawi residents refer to
themselves as such) roots, declared the liberation of Marawi on October 17,
2017.
More than one year on, though,
some 70,000 civilians have yet to return to Marawi’s 250-hectare ground zero, a
restriction that has fed local anger and resentment in evacuation centers that
have emerged as militant recruitment grounds.
Foreign Islamic State fighters
often pose as tourists, students overstaying their visas, foreign workers or
economic migrants, and at least 10 of them have been arrested since the start
of this year, Banlaoi said.
Foreign Islamic State fighters
have recently arrived in Mindanao from Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Morocco, Spain,
France, Tunisia, Iraq, Somali, Egypt, Yemen, Libya, Pakistan, Bangladesh and
China, he says, based on government monitoring of the movements.
Most are coming from neighboring
Indonesia and Malaysia, using Mindanao’s maritime backdoor through the seas of
Sulu and Celebes, known as the Sulawesi Sea in Indonesia.
The Malaysian terror suspects
usually enter the southern Philippines through the province of Tawi-Tawi from
the Malaysian state of Sabah on Borneo Island, while the Indonesians tend to
come through the provinces of Davao Occidental and Sarangani from North
Sulawesi.
The three neighboring nations
share broad maritime borders in what is considered the second busiest shipping
trade route in the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations.
“The FTFs regard Mindanao as the
new land of jihad, safe haven and alternative home base,” Banlaoi said. “They
join local groups to wage jihad in the Philippines on behalf of the Islamic
State.”
The foreign Islamic State
fighters are luring local militants with the promise of an East Asian Wilaya,
or Islamic province, after the failure to establish one in Mindanao after their
defeat in Marawi, Banlaoi said.
The Abu Sayyaf Group based in
Basilan and Sulu, the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters based in Maguindanao,
the Ansar Al-Khilafa Philippines based in Sarangani, and the Abu Dar Group in
Lanao del Sur, a remnant of the Maute Group, are all coddling the foreign
fighters, he said.
Lieutenant Colonel Gerry Besana,
spokesperson of the Armed Forces of the Philippines’ Western Mindanao Command,
said Islamic State continues to inspire local Muslim armed groups despite their
military defeat last year at Marawi.
He also said that foreigners who
pledge allegiance to the Islamic State continue to join local Islamic militant
groups, confirming Banlaoi’s assessment.
“Some of these foreign terrorists
are coming in through our porous borders,” Besana said, referring to the Sulu
and Sulawesi seas that the Philippines shares with Malaysia and Indonesia.
The military official said the
Philippines, Malaysia and Indonesia have intensified joint navy patrols in border
waters in a multilateral cooperation to fight terror threats.
While acknowledging that security
forces alone can not detect foreign terrorist fighters because of the nation’s
long coastlines and rugged jungles in Mindanao, the official called on the public
to report suspicious foreigners to authorities for verification of their
identities.
Local militant groups have
instead provided sanctuary to foreign terrorists in the past. That includes
well-known Malaysian terrorist Zulkifli bin Hir, alias “Marwan,” a bomb-making
expert who was killed in Maguindanao province’s Mamasapano town in January
2015.
Marwan was given safe haven by
the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters, a Islamic militant group which has
recently declared its allegiance to Islamic State and is accused of
orchestrating recent bombings in the region.
Besana said foreign terrorist
fighters are arriving in Mindanao because of Islamic State’s “waning influence
in the Middle East and in other parts of the world.”
Preventing foreign terrorist fighters
from entering the country is difficult for the military and other law
enforcement agencies because they often disguise their identities. And while
Islamic State aligned groups were defeated at Marawi, it’s not clear where or
how they intend to strike next, Besana says.
Photo: YouTube
