MANILA: Five Daesh-inspired militants died in an airstrike on a known hideout of the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF) in southern Philippines early on Tuesday, the military said.
Capt. Arvin Encinas, spokesperson for the Army’s 6th Infantry Division, said five government troops were wounded in the air and ground operations that started around 3:30 a.m.
In a telephone interview, Encinas told Arab News that the Philippine Air Force bombarded the base of BIFF leader Esmail Abdulmalik, also known as Abu Turaife, at Barangay Tunganon area in North Cotabato province. Soldiers were later sent in to contain Abdulmalik and his men in the area.
Abdulmalik is the leader of a third faction of the BIFF. His group uses the Daesh flag as its banner.
When asked how many BIFF forces were in the area, Encinas said: “Enough to stage atrocities.”
“The operation was conducted to weed out the terrorist group and to free the communities from the terror menace brought about by the BIFF,” Encinas said.
According to official information received on the ground, five BIFF fighters were killed during the airstrike.
Government forces have been pursuing Abdulmalik’s group for more than two months. Focused military operations have now begun in the neighboring province of Maguindanao.
In previous operations, soldiers overran three BIFF camps. As a result of continuing military offensives, Abdulmalik and his group were driven out of their enclaves and forced to move to North Cotabato.
In Tuesday’s offensives, Encinas said that all safety procedures were undertaken for the “well-coordinated, deliberately planned, and specific-target operation.”
The army initially said that “the targeted areas are far from the local communities, hence the operation was conducted with outmost consideration that the civilian populace is far from harm’s way, ensuring their safety and protection.”
However, Encinas said that 180 families had been displaced due to the clashes.
Maj. Gen. Dela Vega, commander, Joint Task Force Central (JTF Central), said government forces were determined to defeat all threat groups and thwart their activities in Central Mindanao.
“The continued support and cooperation of the community hasten and complement the ability of JTF Central to prevent and counter the efforts of the radical extremist groups in sowing fear and violence in the area of operation,” he said.
A splinter group of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, the BIFF, broke into three factions in 2014. One of the factions, led by Abdulmalik and commonly known as the Toraife group, pledged allegiance to Daesh along with the Abu Sayyaf Group and Maute Group.
Five militants killed in Philippines army offensive
Five militants killed in Philippines army offensive
India hosts global leaders, tech moguls at AI Impact Summit
- 20 heads of state scheduled to attend event which runs until Feb. 20
- Summit expected to speed up adoption of AI in India’s governance, expert says
NEW DELHI: A global artificial intelligence summit opened in New Delhi on Monday, with representatives of more than 60 countries scheduled to discuss the use and regulation of AI with the industry’s leaders and investors.
The India AI Impact Summit 2026 is hosted by the Indian government’s IndiaAI Mission — an initiative worth in excess of $1 billion and launched by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology in 2024 to develop the AI ecosystem in the country.
After five days of sessions and an accompanying exhibition of 300 companies at Bharat Mandapam — the venue of the 2023 G20 summit — participating leaders are expected to sign a declaration which, according to the organizer, will outline a “shared road map for global AI governance and collaboration.”
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who will attend the summit on Friday with French President Emmanuel Macron, said on X it was a “matter of great pride for us that people from around the world are coming to India” for the event, which is evidence that the country is “rapidly advancing in the fields of science and technology and is making a significant contribution to global development.”
Among the 20 heads of state that the Indian Ministry of External Affairs has announced as scheduled to attend are Macron, Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, Finnish Prime Minister Petteri Orpo, and Sheikh Khaled bin Mohamed bin Zayed Al-Nahyan, Abu Dhabi’s crown prince.
Also expected are tech moguls such as OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Google’s chief Sundar Pichai.
The summit will give India, the world’s most populous country, a platform to try to steer cooperation and AI regulation between the West and the Global South, and to present to the global audience its own technological development.
“India is leveraging its position as a bridge between emerging and developed economies to bring together not just country leaders and technologists, but also delegates, policy analysts, media, and others … to explore the facets of AI, multilateral collaborations, and the direction that large-scale development of AI should take,” said Anwesha Sen, assistant program manager for technology and policy at Takshashila Institution.
“India is trying to do three things through the AI Impact Summit. One, India is advocating for sovereign AI and the development of inclusive, population-scale solutions. Two, establishing international collaborations that prioritize AI diffusion in sectors like healthcare and agriculture. And three, showcasing how Indian startups and organizations are using frameworks such as that of digital public infrastructure as a model to bridge the two.”
It is the fourth such gathering dedicated to the development of AI. The first one was held in the UK in 2023, a year after the debut of ChatGPT; the 2024 meeting in South Korea; and last year’s event took place in France.
The summit is likely to help the Indian government in speeding up the adoption of AI, according to Nikhil Pahwa, digital rights activist and founder of MediaNama, a mobile and digital news portal, who likened it to the Digital India initiative launched in 2015 to provide digital government services.
“A summit like this, with this much bandwidth allocated to it by the government, even if the agenda is flat, ends up making AI a priority focus for ministries and state governments,” Pahwa told Arab News.
“It encourages diffusion of AI execution-specific thinking and ends up increasing adoption of AI in governance and by both central and state-level ministries. That reduces time for adoption of AI.
“We saw this play out with the government’s Digital India focus: it increased digitization and the adoption of digital technology. The agenda and India’s role in AI globally is less important than speeding up adoption.”
