ISIS making attempts to regain foothold in Philippines

Philippine police arrested Dec. 10 a Saudi national who had eased the entry into Philippines of militants of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) from the Middle East.

Philippine media quoted a police officer as saying that the Saudi national is called Suleiman al-Sahibani.

He said the man is 47 years old. The man, he said, was arrested along with his Philippine wife after police raided their home in southern Cotabato City.

Sahibani had brought in Arab fighters from ISIS, an investigation officer said.

He added that Sahibani is linked to terrorist groups allied to ISIS and active in the southern part of the Philippines.

ISIS first appeared in the Philippines in 2016 when it posed a video to social media. The video showed hundreds of fighters within the terrorist group from different counties, including from Chechnya, Yemen and Somalia.

A year later, the ISIS militants overran one of the most important cities in Maguindanao. It took the Philippine army nine months to be able to free the city from ISIS control. The army freed the city after killing 900 militants, including the ISIS emir in East Asia.

According to observers, ISIS is especially active in areas where there is a Muslim majority.

People in these areas, they said, have a secessionist attitude.

The same areas are not easy to control by Philippine security because of their tough geography, experts say.

This makes these areas easy to turn into a safe refuge for terrorists and terrorist groups, they add.