MANILA, Philippines: Philippine troops killed a suspected militant and captured another in a brief gunbattle with rebels aligned with the Daesh group who are blamed for recent bombings in the south, military officials said Thursday.
Army troops and police clashed briefly with fighters of the Daulah Islamiyah group on Wednesday in M’lang town in Cotabato province while searching for the people behind recent bombings believed aimed at extorting money from bus companies and other businesses in the south, military officials said.
A suspected militant, Monir Lintukan, was killed in the clash and another, Randy Saro, was arrested, army battalion commander Lt. Col. Rommel Mundala said. Several others escaped.
Lintukan and Saro are among the suspects in bombings last month of a bus in Koronadal city and a bus parking lot in Tacurong city, army officials said. One person was injured in the Korondal explosion.
“Due to our intensified intelligence gathering, we immediately tracked down those suspects and launched manhunt operations,” said Col. Jovencio Gonzales, a regional army infantry brigade commander.
Despite a 2014 government peace pact with the largest Muslim separatist group and years of military offensives, pockets of armed insurgents, some aligned with the Daesh group, still pose a threat in the south, the homeland of minority Muslims in the largely Roman Catholic nation.
Philippine troops kill suspected bomber, capture another
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Philippine troops kill suspected bomber, capture another
- Army troops and police clashed briefly with fighters of the Daulah Islamiyah group on Wednesday
- A suspected militant, Monir Lintukan, was killed in the clash and another, Randy Saro, was arrested
Mali, Burkina say restricting entry for US nationals in reciprocal move
- Both countries said they are applying the same measures on American nationals as imposed on them
ABIDJAN: Mali and Burkina Faso have announced travel restrictions on American nationals in a tit-for-tat move after the US included both African countries on a no-entry list.
In statements issued separately by both countries’ foreign ministries and seen Wednesday by AFP, they said they were imposing “equivalent measures” on US citizens, after President Donald Trump expanded a travel ban to nearly 40 countries this month, based solely on nationality.
That list included Syrian citizens, as well as Palestinian Authority passport holders, and nationals of some of Africa’s poorest countries including also Niger, Sierra Leone and South Sudan.
The White House said it was banning foreigners who “intend to threaten” Americans.
Burkina Faso’s foreign ministry said in the statement that it was applying “equivalent visa measures” on Americans, while Mali said it was, “with immediate effect,” applying “the same conditions and requirements on American nationals that the American authorities have imposed on Malian citizens entering the United States.”
It voiced its “regret” that the United States had made “such an important decision without the slightest prior consultation.”
The two sub-Saharan countries, both run by military juntas, are members of a confederation that also includes Niger.
Niger has not officially announced any counter-measures to the US travel ban, but the country’s news agency, citing a diplomatic source, said last week that such measures had been decided.
In his December 17 announcement, Trump also imposed partial travel restrictions on citizens of other African countries including the most populous, Nigeria, as well as Ivory Coast and Senegal, which qualified for the football World Cup to be played next year in the United States as well as Canada and Mexico.
