Philippine Army chief Lieutenant General Rolando Bautista on Tuesday said the recruitment of ISIS-influenced groups is still ongoing one year after the Maute-ISIS fighters laid siege on Marawi City, like reported by gmanetwork.com.

Bautista said terrorists organizations such as the Abu Sayyaf, Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters, and Khilafa Islamiyah Mindanao are still present in southern Philippines and pose danger to Filipinos.

“Nakita namin na yung fragments ng mga ISIS-influenced are still recruiting kasi alam natin na although yung Maute-ISIS group have been reduced in terms of strength and capability, meron tayong Abu Sayyaf Group, meron tayo yung BIFF, meron tayo yung Khilafa Islamiyah Mindanao which is short of saying na meron din silang influence ng ISIS,” Bautista said.

He, however, said these terrorist groups will take “more or less three to five years” to stage another siege like the five-month long encounter in Marawi.

Bautista also said the military learned a new form of terrorism — sleeper cells — from the Maute-ISIS group which is a form of lone wolf tactic that can create terrorist activities in multiple locations.

“Yung ISIS cells dun makikita mo meron sa Baguio, meron sa Dagupan, meron sa Tarlac, Pangasinan, sa Visayas naman meron sa Samar, meron sa Cebu and so forth, so kung mag-orchestrate uli sila ng sinasabi nating terrorist activities, it might be in the form of lone wolf,” Bautista said.

“‘Pag in-activate ‘yun puwedeng sabay-sabay silang mag-create ng terrorist activities. For example one or two, mag-conduct sila ng explosion sa isang area and yung sa Cebu assassination, liquidation that will create a big impact although two or three persons lang ang gumagawa. ‘Yun yung most probable na strategy nila in the meantime,” he added.

Bautista, however, said the declaration of martial law in Mindanao helped the military in its hunt for terrorists. He said this allowed them to detain and hasten the background checks on suspected terrorists even if they are foreign nationals.

According to Bautista, they were also allowed to conduct inspections in suspected areas where improvised explosive devices and ammunition are allegedly manufactured.

He was proud to say there were no complaints of human rights violations during military operations against suspected terrorists during and after the Marawi siege.

“Ang bottom line dito is during the Marawi campaign there was zero human right violations. Yun ang na-prove natin sa ating mga kababayan na kahit na may martial law, still hindi natin aabusuhin yung authority na binigay sa ating mga government forces,” Bautista said.

A bomb in a minibus exploded near a security checkpoint in the southern Afghan city of Kandahar on Tuesday causing numerous casualties, officials said, as attacks continue during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, like reported by reuters.com.

The blast, near one of the city’s main markets, sent a huge cloud of dust and smoke into the air.

Nematullah Barak, head of Mirwais hospital in Kandahar, said six dead and more 30 wounded, including several children, had so far brought in but more casualties were arriving.

A statement from the NDS intelligence service said the minibus, packed with explosives, was discovered in a large open yard of mechanics workshops but blew up before it could be defused.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility.

Hundreds of people have been killed or wounded in high-profile bomb attacks since the beginning of the year, many in the capital Kabul but provincial cities have also been hit as the Taliban, seeking to reimpose hardline Islamic rule, have stepped up fighting across the country.

Kandahar province, on the border with Pakistan, is a major center of opium cultivation and a stronghold of the Taliban but the city itself has recently been relatively secure.

A key Taliban local group leader Mullah Din Mohammad and his comrades were killed in an airstrike in western Farah province of Afghanistan, like reported by khaama.com.

The Ministry of Defense (MoD) said Mullah Din Mohammad was killed in an airstrike conducted in Posht Rod district of Farah province.

The source further added that a total of four militants including Mullah Din Mohammad and his three comrades were killed in the airstrikes.

Farah is among the relatively volatile provinces in West of Afghanistan where the anti-government armed militant groups are active in some of its remote districts.

Hundreds of Taliban insurgents launched a coordinated attack on Farah city the provincial capital of Farah in the early hours of Tuesday morning.

The Afghan national defense and security forces responded to the attack by launching air and ground operations that lasted until early hours of Wednesday morning.

The Afghan officials said Wednesday that the city has been cleared of the Taliban militants although they did not rule out the presence of the Taliban militants in some parts of the city as well its outskirts.

The local residents in Farah said late on Wednesday night that fresh clashes resumed after some Taliban insurgents launched coordinated attacks on Farah prison and other government compounds.

The order to move operations from the Philippines came from Kabul, where militants fleeing Syria have taken refuge. The Armed Forces are on alert across the country. Suspected terrorists are being arrested. President Widodo revives a joint special ops military force. Indonesians approve, but Islamists and human rights organisations express fears, like reported by asianews.it.

“The attacks of the last few days show that the Islamic State (IS) has moved its operations from Marawi, in the Philippines, to Indonesia,” said Indonesian Defence Minister General Ryamizard Ryacudu.

The former commander in chief of the Indonesian Armed Forces said he had received the information from ‘Our Eyes’, an intelligence sharing agreement involving six countries of the Association of South-East Asia Nations (ASEAN).

Aimed at fighting Islamic militants and improving security cooperation, the agreement was signed last January by Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Brunei.

“The latest series of attacks in Surabaya follow a direct order from Kabul to move the bases from Marawi to the country,” Ryacudu said at a press conference three days ago.

The minister explained that, because of the massive campaigns by the United States, Russia and their allies, a large number of IS fighters fled from Syria to Afghanistan.

For their part, Indonesia’s Armed Forces are on alert all over the country and suspected terrorists continue to be arrested.

Presidential chief of staff General Muldoko confirmed yesterday that President Joko Widodo has agreed to revive a joint special ops military force by the Army, Navy and Air Force.

The force is called Koopssusgab (Komando Operasi Khusus Gabungan) and will be led by Hadi Tjahjanto, commander of the Indonesian Armed Forces (TNI).

Earlier, National Police spokesman Setyo Wasito confirmed that Army’s Special Forces (Kopassus) had been involved in recent raids, including the capture of suspected terrorists, along with Densus 88, the special anti-terrorist police department.

Some Islamist politicians and various human rights organisations have expressed their opposition to the involvement of the Armed Forces in police actions. They cite concerns about possible human rights violations.

Under the authoritarian rule of President Suharto (1967-1988), Indonesia’s Armed Forced were repeatedly accused of mistreating members of separatist movements, opposition groups and critics of the Suharto administration.

However, despite the criticism of conservative politicians, the Armed Forces’ involvement has been welcomed by many Indonesians, frightened by the new wave of terror that has hit the country.

A notorious Islamist militant wanted for more than 100 murders was killed in an intense gunfight with security forces in southwestern Pakistan on Thursday (May 17), the military said according to abna24.com.

Pakistani forces raided the Killi Almas village on the outskirts of Quetta, capital of the restive Balochistan province, based on a tip that there were suicide bombers hiding there, according to a military statement.

Three militants were killed in the firefight that erupted, including Salman Badeni, the provincial commander of the sectarian militant group Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ).

Badeni – described by authorities as a “high-value target” – was wanted for his involvement in the killing of more than 100 people, including policemen and members of the minority Shi’ite (Shia) Hazara community.

The other two militants were suicide bombers, the military said.

An army intelligence officer was also killed in the operation, it added, and four other soldiers were wounded – two of them critically.

LeJ, a Nasbi-Wahhabi group, is widely considered to be one of the most violent sectarian outfits in Pakistan. It has claimed responsibility for a number of high-profile attacks in recent years on Shiite Muslims, who are considered heretics by sectarian Sunni extremists.

Several Islamist militant groups are active in Balochistan, including the Taleban and local affiliates of the so-called Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) group.

More than 1,500 Shiite Hazaras have been martyred in the province in recent years, according to Mr Abdul Khaliq Hazara, chairman of the Hazara Democratic Party.

Many of them were killed in attacks blamed on LeJ and ISIS. Both groups claimed responsibility for an attack on lawyers in Quetta last year that killed more than 70 people.

Pakistan has also been battling separatist insurgents in Balochistan for over a decade, with hundreds of soldiers and rebels killed in the fighting.

A top leader of the Al-Qaeda terrorist network was killed in a US airstrike in eastern Nangarhar province of Afghanistan, like reported by khaama.com.

U.S. forces conducted an airstrike killing an al-Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent (AQIS) leader, Hazrat Abbas, and his bodyguard, in Sherzad district, Nangahar province, Afghanistan, Apr. 23, 2018, according to a report by the Resolute Support Mission.

The report further adds that Abbas, a senior AQIS and Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) commander, controlled fighting forces in both Pakistan and Afghanistan. Abbas’ forces were responsible for numerous attacks and kidnappings on both sides of the border.

Abbas’ integration and command of multiple organizations highlights the relationships between terrorist organizations in Afghanistan and the surrounding region, specifically how regional terrorist groups shelter and facilitate global threat networks, the report added.

Afghan government forces have pushed back the Taliban from Farah city, the capital of the western Farah Province, close to the Iranian border, an Afghan official says, according to rferl.org.

More than 300 Taliban fighters have been killed in the battle for Farah, provincial Governor Abdul Basir Salangi said on May 16.

He said 25 government troops also died.

Salangi said residents had begun clearing the city, including removing the bodies of almost 40 Taliban fighters.

The attack, the first major assault targeting a provincial capital since the Taliban announced its annual spring offensive, began early on May 15 when several security checkpoints were overrun after midnight, with the militants capturing one urban district and parts of another.

Special police forces from Kandahar and commandos from Herat were also deployed in Farah, Afghan officials said, as heavy fighting continued through May 15.

Afghan and NATO warplanes also took part in the battle.

Zabihullah Mujahid, a Taliban spokesman, claimed responsibility for the attack.

Farah Province has been a key battleground for the Taliban for months. It borders Helmand Province, where the militants control several districts.

Last week an improvised explosive device was used to target a girls’ school in Hassokhel, North Waziristan, in northwest Pakistan. Thankfully, no children were injured in the attack, although a boundary wall was damaged. That bombing came just three days after another girls’ school in North Waziristan was attacked, this time in the town of Mir Ali. Residents said that militants have been distributing pamphlets demanding authorities shut down girls’ schools in the area, like reported by hrw.org.

Pakistan already faces major challenges to education due to low enrollment rates, gender bias, a lack of trained teachers, and poor physical infrastructure. But Islamist militant violence has further exacerbated these challenges and disrupted the education of hundreds of thousands of children.

Deliberate and indiscriminate attacks on schools and universities, their students, and staff have increased around the world over the past five years, according to a new report by the Global Coalition to Protect Education (GCPEA), which Human Rights Watch co-chairs. GCPEA found that the Pakistan Taliban is behind many of these horrendous attacks on Pakistani schools.

Human Rights Watch has documented government failures to stop or mitigate such attacks. For instance, the Pakistani government does not collect proper data on school attacks, so there is no monitoring to ensure that damaged school buildings are repaired or rebuilt. And perhaps more importantly, there are no systems to help traumatized students and staff who survive school attacks but struggle to cope in the aftermath.

Pakistan should develop a comprehensive policy for protecting all students – but especially girls, who are already disadvantaged from attending school by cultural factors – from being attacked at school.

Pakistan can start by endorsing the Safe Schools Declaration, a non-binding agreement that has been adopted by 74 countries who pledge to act to protect students, teachers, and schools from being attacked, and to restore access to education when attacks occur.

Attacks on education not only harm students and families directly affected, but have an incalculable long-term negative effect on Pakistan’s society and economy. The government should do all it can to keep Pakistani children safe at school.

Afghan security forces and Taliban clashed in the poppy-growing western city of Farah on Tuesday after terrorists launched an overnight attack with gunfire and explosions, like reported by wionews.com.

At least 100 government commandos launched an attack on the Taliban on Tuesday morning. “Heavy fighting continues inside the city and aircraft have just started bombarding Taliban positions,”  local provincial council member Jamila Amini told AFP Tuesday from inside the city.

At least 1 convoy was hit by suicide bombers, reports said.

Earlier in the week, at least 10 people were killed and over 40 injured after terrorists stormed a government building in Jalalabad.

The attack began after terrorists noted a car bomb outside the finance department. The Islamic State group claimed it carried out the attack.

The local officials in southeastern Paktia province are saying that the anti-government armed militants have suffered heavy casualties during the joint operations conducted by the Afghan and US forces in this province, like reported by khaama.com.

The provincial government media office in a statement said the operations were conducted in Surkh Dara, Zaghni, and Roidar areas of Aryoub azai district.

The statement further added that at least 22 militants were killed and 7 others were wounded during the operations which were conducted with the help of the close-air support.

According to the local officials, the dead bodies of the militants are still left in the area and the death toll could be much higher.

The operations were conducted as the militants were attempting to establish safe havens after crossing from the other side of the Durand Line, Azra district of Logar, and Hesarak district of Nangarhar, the statement added.

According to the governor’s office, several key commanders of the militants have also been killed during the operations.

In the meantime, the 203rd Thunder Corps said the airstrikes were mainly carried out by the US forces based in Afghanistan to support the ground forces.