Philippines: scores of Islamic State fighters on Mindanao island

[TomSea]

They fought rebels, militants including ISIS there, beat them, looks like they are back as the article references.

Philippines: scores of Islamic State fighters on Mindanao island
Carmela Fonbuena

The threat of Islamic State is mounting again in the Philippines, with estimates there could be between 40 to 100 foreign fighters, and a growing momentum among local pro-Islamic State militant groups.

In May last year, the Mindanao city of Marawi was overrun by Isis fighters and a caliphate declared. It took a bloody, five-month siege by the army, in which 1,200 lives were lost, for the government to regain control.

But one year on from Marawi’s liberation, Prof Rommel Banlaoi, chairman of the Philippine Institute for Peace, Violence and Terrorism Research, told the Guardian that he had seen records of up to 100 foreign fighters on the island – a combination of old and new arrivals since the Marawi siege last year – who want to re-establish the east Asia wilayah (or East Asia Isis province) crushed in the fighting.

Read more at: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/nov/11/philippines-scores-of-islamic-state-fighters-on-mindanao-island?CMP=share_btn_tw

[TomSea]

Southern Philippines: At Least 5 Troops Die in Clash with Abu Sayyaf
Jeoffrey Maitem
Cotabato, Philippines
2018-11-17

At least five soldiers were killed and more than two dozen others wounded in a gunbattle with Abu Sayyaf militants who were holding hostages in the southern Philippines, the military said on Saturday.

The incident was the deadliest for Philippine soldiers in the restive south so far this year.

The clash broke out Friday afternoon in Lianga, a village in Patikul town on remote Jolo island, as patrolling soldiers encountered nearly 50 heavily armed Abu Sayyaf fighters, regional military spokesman Col. Gerry Besana said.

Read more at: https://www.benarnews.org/english/news/philippine/soldiers-killed-11172018074304.html

Paweł Wójcik
‏ @SaladinAlDronni
7h7 hours ago

Islamic State claims responsibility for this battle, says that 7 Filipino soldiers were killed.

https://twitter.com/SaladinAlDronni

This appears to be the same battle and the ISIS-boosted terrorists carried this out.  So, the initial article seems a bit timely. So far, not much in the mainstream press on this.