Tag: Marawi

International Briefs: Philippine airstrike, Niger migrants, US Embassy, IS news agency, Antartic iceberg

Philippine airstrike kills 11 soldiers in besieged city

MARAWI, Philippines — A Philippine bomber plane killed 11 soldiers and injured seven others, security officials said June 1, as troops struggled to end a bloody siege by 500 Islamic State group-aligned extremists.

The plane was making a bombing run over militant positions in Marawi May 31 when one bomb accidentally hit army troops locked in close battle with extremists who had taken cover in buildings and houses, military spokesman Brig. Gen. Restituto Padilla said. The plane made three successful bombing runs prior to the error, he said.

The military ran out of precision-guided bombs from earlier airstrikes and used conventional ones in the May 31 bombing run, Philippine Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana said in a news conference in Manila.

44 migrants die of thirst in Niger during desert crossing

NIAMEY, Niger — At least 44 migrants, including babies, died of thirst after their vehicle broke down in the Sahara Desert as they tried to reach Libya, an official in Niger said Thursday.

Most of the dead migrants were from Ghana, said the prefect of Dirkou locality, Bachir Manzo. They included three babies, two children and 17 women. The official said six people survived, and are being cared for in the Dirkou migrant center.

West African migrants traveling to Europe often pass through Niger, and some 300,000 migrants passed through the vast West African nation in 2016 alone, according to the International Organization for Migration.

The bodies were discovered just days after President Mahamadou Issoufou made a plea to the leaders of G-7 industrialized nations to address the migration crisis during a meeting in Taormina, Sicily.

Trump keeps US Embassy in Tel Aviv, for now

WASHINGTON — Stepping back from a campaign promise and incurring Israeli ire, President Donald Trump acted Thursday to keep the U.S. Embassy in Israel in Tel Aviv instead of moving it to Jerusalem. The cautious move aims to bolster prospects for an Israeli-Palestinian peace accord.

Trump avoided a step that threatened to inflame tensions across the Middle East and undermine a push for peace before it even started. Still, the White House insisted Trump was merely delaying, not abandoning, his oft-cited pledge to relocate the embassy.

Trump faced a June 1 deadline to determine how to proceed. Under a 1990s law passed by Congress, the president must move the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem or the State Department loses half its funding for overseas facilities. But the president can waive the law if he believes it is in the best interest of  U.S. national security. Presidents have consistently renewed the waivers for six-month stretches — President Barack Obama did so six months ago.

Trump’s decision to keep the embassy in Tel Aviv showed just how far he has shifted from the unwavering support for Israel’s policies that he expressed during the 2016 campaign. As president, Trump has proceeded cautiously, hoping to preserve his ability to mediate one of the world’s most intractable conflicts.

IS news agency’s founder killed in strike

BEIRUT — The founder of the Islamic State group news agency and his daughter were reportedly killed in an airstrike last week in eastern Syria, opposition activists said June 1.

The militant group itself has not reported the death of the Aamaq agency founder, Baraa Kadek. Activists said Kadek was close to the IS group leadership, gaining trust and reportedly meeting with the enigmatic leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.

Kadek’s brother, Hozaifa, and former friends reported his death, saying he died when a suspected airstrike by the U.S.-led international coalition  hit his home in the town of Mayadeen in the province of Deir ez-Zor.
Last week, the coalition told The Associated Press it had carried out a series of airstrikes on May 25 and 26 targeting IS media infrastructure and “propaganda facilities.” It said at the time that targeting such facilities “degrades” the group’s capabilities and tools to inspire attacks on foreign lands.

At the time, activists said the coalition airstrikes killed at least 35 civilians, including family of IS members.

Scientists say Antarctic shelf about to lose iceberg

BERLIN — Scientists say a crack along a key floating ice shelf in Antarctica indicates that a vast iceberg is close to breaking off.

The process, known as calving, happens periodically, but researchers are watching closely to see whether climate change is affecting the phenomenon.

Scientists at the Swansea University in Britain said June 1 the rift in the Larsen C ice shelf grew by 10.6 miles in six days.

They say the break, when it comes, could produce one of the largest icebergs ever recorded.
University of Colorado scientist Ted Scambos said the shelf appears to be breaking further back than previously recorded calvings.

Scambos adds that “this berg is telling us something has changed, and not for the better. For now, though, the ice shelf will barely notice.”

ASSOCIATED PRESS

Philippines resort attacked, Islamic State group takes responsibility

JIM GOMEZ
Associated Press

MANILA, Philippines — Gunshots rang out and explosions erupted after midnight in a hotel and casino complex near Manila’s airport, sending hundreds fleeing into darkened streets early Friday in chaos that appeared linked to a Muslim militant siege in the country’s south.

The Islamic State group, in a quick communique, took responsibility for the attack.

Philippine police rushed to the Resorts World Manila complex early Friday after witnesses reported gunmen barging into a mall in the commercial center, where whitish smoke began billowing from an upper floor.

Witnesses reported seeing injured people, including a SWAT member who rushed to the scene and was reportedly fired upon by unidentified men. It was not immediately clear if anyone was killed, or if the attack had concluded.

Resorts World Manila posted on its Facebook account that it was “on lockdown following reports of gunfire from unidentified men,” adding “the company is working closely with the Philippine National Police to ensure that all guests and employees are safe.”

“We ask for your prayers during these difficult times,” the company said.

Philippine police have not given details about the incident but have begun cordoning off the area near the Ninoy Aquino International Airport.

“I heard many, many gunshots,” Julio Silva, a casino player who managed to dash out of the mall complex amid the gunfire, told DZMM radio network.

Silva said he saw a SWAT member shouting “I was hit, I was hit.”

A DZMM radio reporter on the scene said she saw two ambulances ferrying two people away, one with a leg bandage and another in a wheelchair.

As news of the attack spread, President Donald Trump offered the thoughts and prayers of the American people to the Philippines.

“It is really very sad as to what’s going on throughout the world with terror,” he said from the White House Rose Garden. He said he is “closely monitoring the situation” and will continue to provide updates.

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The violence is unfolding amid a 10-day deadly siege by Muslim militants aligned to the Islamic State group in the southern city of Marawi. The attack has sparked fears that the militants may attack elsewhere to divert the focus of thousands of troops trying to quell the siege.

The SITE Intelligence Group, a U.S. terrorism monitor, said an Islamic State-linked Filipino operative who provides daily updates on the ongoing clashes in Marawi claimed that “lone wolf soldiers” of the Islamic State group were responsible for the attack at Resorts World Manila.

An English message by the operative was distributed across several pro-IS Telegram chat groups, SITE said. According to SITE, he wrote: “The lone wolf soldiers of Khilafah attack the heart of Kufar the city of Manila in Resort World.”

President Rodrigo Duterte sent soldiers to the southern Philippines to end the siege by about 500 militants. Officials said 120 militants, at least 25 soldiers, five policemen and two dozen civilians have been killed in the fighting since Tuesday last week.

Duterte declared martial law in the Mindanao region, the southern third of the Philippines, to crush the insurrection, and poured in troops backed by airstrikes, artillery fire and armored vehicles.

The unrest has boosted fears that the Islamic State group’s violent ideology is gaining a foothold in the country’s restive southern islands, where Muslim separatist rebellions have raged for nearly half a century.

Civilians seek food, water as siege on Philippines continues (Photo Gallery)

Jim Gomez
Associated Press

MARAWI, Philippines — At an evacuation center outside the besieged Philippine city of Marawi on Wednesday, the results of a week of misery — a week of violence, uncertainty, long nights and promises of better tomorrows — were evident in the faces and hearts of the displaced.

About 130 people were killed in the violent attacks on Marawi, which erupted last Tuesday after soldiers launched a raid to capture militant leader Isnilon Hapilon, a leader of the Islamic State group in Southeast Asia.

In the skirmish, the operation went awry and Hapilon got away. 

The unrest has boosted fears that the Islamic State group’s violent ideology is gaining a foothold in the country’s restive southern islands, where a Muslim separatist rebellion has raged for decades.

Military spokesman Brig. Gen. Restituto Padilla said Hapilon is believed to still be in Marawi.

As the two sides battle it out, civilians have been caught in the crossfire.

Bilal Sulaiman, a 47-year-old carpenter, said his wife and three children evacuated to safety early in the conflict but he stayed behind to watch their house near the scene of the battle.

He said when the fighting became too fierce, with bombs exploding two blocks away from his house, he ran for his life to a nearby mountain, where he waited without food and water until he found safety in an army-controlled area.

“We did not eat for days,” Sulaiman told the AP at an evacuation center, where some people wept as rescue workers handed out biscuits and water. “It was really scary. There were explosions just two blocks from my house, but I couldn’t leave our house because somebody might burn it. I later left when the fighting got too intense.”

Frightened civilians crowded into schools, basketball courts and sports centers where villagers slept on floors and in grandstands. The villagers relied on government food and water rations as well as donations.

Amid the squalor and lack of privacy, Naima Dimangadap, a single mother of five, wept.

“Our homes got burned because of the bombings,” Dimangadap said. “We failed to save anything, including our cooking pots. It’s so difficult to live in this evacuation camp.”

On Wednesday, Philippine authorities said troops had cleared almost 90 percent of Marawi city.

Padilla said 960 civilians had been rescued and an estimated 1,000 residents remained trapped in the city. The dead include 89 militants, 19 civilians and 21 government forces.

Eight other militants surrendered and provided “very, very valuable intelligence” during questioning, Padilla said.

President Rodrigo Duterte, who declared martial law on Mindanao island, has approved the creation of a “peace corridor” to hasten the rescue of civilians and delivery of humanitarian aid for displaced people. Presidential spokesman Ernesto Abella said the corridor will be implemented by the government and the main separatist group, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, which has signed a peace agreement in exchange for Muslim autonomy in Mindanao, the southern third of the Philippines.

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