Alagar on alert vs sympathy attacks

By NITZ ARANCON
Correspondent

AUTHORITIES here and elsewhere in Mindanao have intensified security and intelligence information-gathering operations despite seeming de-escalation efforts by the US and Iran following the latter’s retaliatory missile attacks on Wednesday.

Brig. Gen. Rolando Anduyan, police director for Region 10, ordered law enforcers throughout northern Mindanao to strengthen security measures to thwart a possible spillover of violence and sympathy attacks.

On Wednesday, Iran launched over a dozen ballistic missiles against at least two military bases housing the US and coalition forces in Iraq. Its foreign minister subsequently said the attacks concluded Iran’s retaliatory response to the US drone attack that killed its top general, Qasem Soleimani, last week.

The Armed Forces’ Western Mindanao Command (Westmincom) also stepped up the monitoring of Daesh-inspired groups as a result of the tensions between the US and Iran.

This came after newly-installed Armed Forces chief-of-staff Lt. Gen. Felimon Santos Jr. directed troops to closely watch the threat groups that have sympathetic relations with other countries like Iran and Iraq.

“The order of the higher headquarters is to monitor all the threat groups, particularly the sympathizers within the area, who are Daesh-inspired groups,” said Maj. Arvin John Encinas, Westmincom information officer.

Here, Camp Alagar said it would be on guard against groups with the potentials to carry out sympathy attacks in favor of Iran.

Hortillosa said Brig. Gen. Anduyan made it clear that he wants police intelligence information gathering stepped up in the region.

“We will be continuously gathering intelligence reports regarding groups that may take advantage of (what is happening between the US and Iraq),” Hortillosa said.

Meanwhile, Encinas said that one of those being closely monitored by the military is the Abu Sayyaf that has pledged allegiance to the Islamic State for Iraq and Syria (Isis) or Daesh.

The founder of the Abu Sayyaf, Abdurajak Abubakar Janjalani, had undergone training in Syria and reportedly fought alongside the late Osama Bin Laden against the Russian forces in Afghanistan in the late ’80s.

Janjalani, who founded the Abu Sayyaf in 1991, was killed in a clash with police forces on Dec. 18, 1998, in the outskirts of Lamitan City, Basilan. The group had been involved in bomb attacks in key areas of the country in the past years.

Encinas said another Daesh-inspired group being monitored is the Dawlah Islamiya, formerly known as the Maute group.

The group was founded by brothers Abdullah and Omar Maute in 2012 in Butig, Lanao del Sur. Both died in clashes against government troops.

Encinas said government troops are continuously pursuing the Abu Sayyaf in the Basilan, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi areas, and the Dawlah Islamiya in Lanao del Sur. (with reports from PNA and Xinhua)