MANILA: The United States has been providing the Philippines with surveillance capabilities, training, information and aircraft to help it fight a monthslong siege of a southern city by pro-Daesh group militants, the top US diplomat said Monday as he prepared to meet the country’s polarizing president.
US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, in Manila for a regional gathering, said the equipment includes a few Cessna aircraft and a few drones. He said they’ll help the Philippines battle “an enemy that fights in a way that most people have never had to deal with.”
“We think they are beginning to get that situation under control,” Tillerson told reporters. “But the real challenge is going to come with once they have the fighting brought to an end how to deal with the conditions on the ground to ensure it does not re-emerge.”
Nearly 700 people have died in the intense fighting, including 528 militants and 122 soldiers and policemen, since hundreds of black flag waving gunmen stormed into buildings and homes in the business district and outlying communities of mosque-studded Marawi, a center of Islamic faith in the southern third of the predominantly Roman Catholic nation.
Human rights groups have questioned President Donald Trump’s willingness to engage with Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, who has been roundly criticized for a bloody war on illegal drugs that has killed thousands of suspects. But Tillerson argued there’s no contradiction presented by the US decision to help his country fight the militants, whose insurgency in the Philippines has stoked global fears about the Daesh group exporting violence into Southeast Asia and beyond.
“I see no conflict — no conflict at all in our helping them with that situation and our views of the human rights concerns we have with respect to how they carry out their counter narcotics activities,” Tillerson said.
Ahead of the meeting, the US said Tillerson indeed would discuss with Duterte human rights along with all other relevant issues. Duterte’s presidential spokesman, Ernesto Bella, said Monday that the topic would include discuss global terrorism threats, economic cooperation and security in Marawi, the city that has been under militant siege for more than two months.
“We also welcome the opportunity to address concerns such as human rights if and when raised,” Bella said in a statement. “We have always included this issue in our discussions and engagements with foreign governments, particularly Western democracies.”
US says aircraft to help Philippines fight pro-Daesh militants
US says aircraft to help Philippines fight pro-Daesh militants
Macron asks Meloni not to ‘comment’ on France’s affairs after activist remark
- The killing has fueled political tensions in France ahead of municipal elections in March
- Meloni said the killing of Deranque was “a wound for all of Europe“
NEW DELHI: President Emmanuel Macron on Thursday called on Giorgia Meloni to stop “commenting on what is happening in other people’s countries,” after the Italian prime minister expressed shock at the fatal beating of a far-right activist in France.
Quentin Deranque, 23, died from head injuries after being attacked by at least six people last week on the sidelines of a far-right protest at a university in the city of Lyon. Most of the 11 suspects detained are from far left movements, according to a source close to the investigation.
The killing has fueled political tensions in France ahead of municipal elections in March and the 2027 presidential race, in which the far-right National Rally (RN) party is seen as having its best chance yet at winning the top job.
On Wednesday, Meloni said the killing of Deranque was “a wound for all of Europe.”
“Let everyone stay in their own lane,” Macron shot back in New Delhi, on the sidelines of an official visit to India.
Macron also said there was no place in France “for movements that adopt and legitimize violence.”
“Nothing can justify violent action — neither on one side nor the other, and not even in a head-to-head confrontation that is deadly for the republic,” he said.
Macron is “concerned about the situation, which he is closely monitoring,” a member of the French president’s team said earlier Thursday.
“We must avoid any spiral of violence,” they said.
Eleven people — eight men and three women — were taken into custody as part of the investigation into “intentional homicide.”
Among them are two parliamentary assistants to Raphael Arnault, a member of parliament from the hard-left France Unbowed (LFI) party, as well as a former intern.
A lawyer for Deranque’s parents said they called “for calm and restraint.”
“The family condemns any call for violence. Any form of political violence,” Fabien Rajon told broadcaster RTL.
On Wednesday, Jordan Bardella, head of the far-right National Rally (RN), accused Macron and former prime ministers Gabriel Attal and Edouard Philippe of boosting the hard-left.
