ISIS Recruiting Fighters for the Philippines, Not Syria

With the pressure on the Islamic State growing in the Middle East, and the beating they’re taking in Syria and Iraq, ISIS is changing its recruiting tactics to gather fighters for the fighting in the Philippines.

Foreign fighters are defecting by the hundreds in Syria and Iraq, so ISIS is putting the Philippines as their next big target for foreign fighters to go to.

The seven-minute, English-language video, released by the official ISIS media operation late last month, includes messages from several fighters in the Southern Philippines, and scenes from battles with government troops near the city of Marawi, including the pillaging of a Catholic church.

One of the fighters calls on Muslims in “East Asia, specifically those in Indonesia, Malaysia, Brunei, Thailand, and Singapore” to migrate and fight alongside the ISIS-linked militants in the Philippines.

A militant identified as “Abul-Yamaan from Marawi” proclaims: “Come forth to the land of jihad. Perform hijrah. Come forth to … Marawi.”

The three major ISIS-aligned Islamist groups on the island of Mindanao — Maute, the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF), and Abu Sayyaf, formerly an al Qaeda offshoot. ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi named Abu Sayyaf leader Isnilon Hapilon the ISIS emir of Southeast Asia in 2016 have been fighting in Marawi.

The US, which has been supplying Special Operations Forces to support the Filipinos’ efforts in defeating the terrorists have also supplied gun ships and air strikes to oust the insurgents and foreign terrorists who have flocked to the country.

To read the entire article from NBC News click here:

Photo courtesy Jack Murphy SOFREP