Around 10 foreigners are fighting for the Marawi ISIS-linked terrorists

The chief of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) on Monday revealed that 10 foreign fighters, mostly Malaysian and Indonesian nationals, continued to fight alongside Daesh-linked terrorists who laid siege Marawi City on May 23.

General Eduardo Ano also confirmed that Isnilon Hapilon, the head of the Abu Sayyaf militants who also pledged allegiance to the Daesh extremists. was likewise spotted as government forces made significant gains to rid Marawi of the terrorists.

Ano made the revelation when the military presented in a media briefing the Reverend Teresito Suganob, the vicar general of a Caholic cathedral who was abducted along with 12 other Church workers on May 23.

The military said Suganob and a teacher of the Dansalan College were rescued on Saturday night following the capture of the Bato Mosque which served as the “command centre and hub” of the terrorists.

Suganob was flown on Manila on Monday morning and presented at the media briefing where he recounted the ordeal he had undergone at the hands of the terrorists who held him hostage for close to four months.

In the same briefing, Ano disclosed that Hapilon, one of the country’s most wanted men, was still with the terrorists fighting it out with government forces in Marawi, the capital city of Lanao del Sur.

Earlier, the military confirmed that Daesh leaders have appointed Hapilon as its “emir” in Southeast Asia, who was also ordered to establish a caliphate in Marawi.

Ano added they were still verifying reports that the brothers Omar and Abdullah Maute after whom a terror group linked to the Marawi siege has been named, were killed in the fighting.

Meanwhile, Catholic Church leaders in Mindanao, led by Bishop Elenido Galido of the Iligan City diocese, welcomed Sugano’s rescue as an answered prayer.

“We thank the soldiers. This is an answered prayer. We really prayed for this and now that he’s free, thanks to God,” said Galido.

Meanwhile, Ano said the strategic capture of the Bato Mosque, the second after the Grand Mosque, was a strategic breakthrough in resolving the Marawi crisis that prompted President Rodrigo “Rody” Duterte to impose martial law over the whole of troubled Mindanao.

Source: Gulf Today