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Philippine Army spokesman Brig. Gen. Restituto Padilla announced that The Philippine Air Force warplanes bombed ISIS positions in Marawi and that the Philippine Army launched a new push to liberate the city from ISIS.
According to Philippine sources, the new attack was launched after receiving information that ISIS fighters in Marawi may receive more reinforcements after Eid al-Fitr.
“We are doing our best to expedite the liberation of Marawi at the soonest time possible” Padilla said.
From its side, ISIS claimed to have killed five Philippine Army soldiers in the Mankado district of Marawi city on June 19, and claimed that another 7 soldiers were killed in the Baling district on June 20. According to official sources, more than 300 people have been killed in Marawi’s battle so far, which has entered its fifth week.
Philippine President, Rodrigo Duterte, promised the displaced people from Marawi to rebuild the city when the battle is over and announced that the Philippine government has allocated more than 400 million dollars for this.
Duterte asked the displaced to forgive him, saying “I had no choice. They are destroying Marawi. I have to drive them out. But I am very sorry.”
The Philippines had asked for help from the US military to regain control of Marawi City. However, it hasn’t been able to liberate the entire city so far, where it is expected that nearly 200 fighters from ISIS are still in the City.
Asking US military for help instead of Russian. We all know where this is going.
Damn right! The US has engineered this situation to unhinge Duterte’s Goverment and get their sympathisers in the Philippine military to prepare to engineer a military coup against Duterte. They want him out of office so they can get their puppet to control the Philippines. It’s as simple as that. Letting the US is is a major mistake and Duterte may have to purge his US controlled military of most of its top brass an put in officers loyal only to the Philippines.
Yes unfortunately for Duterte his top military officers were trained in American military tactics and speak English. However this maybe not the time to import different military advisors. But he needs to be careful, the US has a bad habit of killing civilians which will only make the situation worse. Dependency on the US is not only a Philippine problem but one faced by most of its military partners in Asia. Where is help from Taiwan, Thailand and Japan? It’s nice that they have armies or defense forces but sitting in the barracks doesn’t give them real world experience.
Hopefully Duterte learned a lesson
Good commentary, I have been married to a Filipina for a long time and she’s great. I have not one atom of faith left in the USA and its horrific Deep State which runs the country and not Trump, as people wrongly surmise. The US has instigated over 55 wars since 1945 and initiated over 76 regime changes often in countries with democratically elected Governments. It has directly, or indirectly, killed more people than Stalin, Mao Tse Tung and Adolf Hitler; which is now estimated to be north of 70 million people. The US is little more than an evil murderous monster moving around this planet, from its 800 military bases, like an out of control 800lb Gorilla. It understands nothing about other cultures and cares not a single damn. The last thing I would ever want is the US, in any shape of form, in my country including having an Embassy, which, by the way, is little more than a CIA station.
Duterte claimed a week ago , that he never asked the US for help .
Correct but the US has engineered the Marawi ISIS situation to destabilise the Duterte Government in a first step to remove him and engineer a military coup, shortly afterwards. His West Point trained senior officers brought the Yanks in which means they are CIA assets. You can figure out all the rest as its obvious!
This is not USA fault. Philippine fault. Get a draft going of both men and women and preferably Christian. Train them and create your own special forces. Instead they allow their daughters to be whores to tourists and men to foresake duty to their country. This is shameful.
US help means Intel leaking to ISIS forces! USA is scum!
Totally agree with you and well said!