Main Militant Islamist Groups in Philippines Affiliate with Islamic State, Raising Fears of Destabilization in the Region

Main Militant Islamist Groups in Philippines Affiliate with Islamic State, Raising Fears of Destabilization in the Region

The Straits Times

Alex Bai Lu

Insecurity is on the rise in South-East Asia, where several armed islamist groups pledged allegiance today to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, following the trend in global jihad. The Moro Islamic Liberation Front, a separatist guerilla recently involved in violent clashes with US presence in the Philippines, is to reunite with Abu Sayyaf, an Al-Qaeda-related radical terror cell that splitted from MILF in the 1990s. In Indonesia, terrorist group Jemaah Islamiya revealed its adhesion to the new structure, the Islamic State in East Asia (ISEA).

In the same message, the new group withdrew its responsibility for the failed bombing of US Subic Bay Naval Base, attributing it to an internal error in MILF communication tools.

ISIL welcomed the evolution in a video, calling international volunteers from all parts of the world to join the group as fighters. The terror Caliphate also promised on an authentified Twitter account to “assist our mujaheed brothers fighting American and Christian crusaders everywhere in South-East Asia with all the resources at our disposition”.