THE Philippines is among five countries with the highest number of terror attacks recorded in 2016, the US State Department said in a report released Wednesday.
In the 2016 US Country Reports on Terrorism, the US State Department said that nearly half of the 11,072 worldwide attacks recorded last year took place in Iraq, Afghanistan, India, Pakistan and the Philippines.
It cited the continuing attacks posed by Islamic State-inspired groups as a major contributor to the country’s main national security threats.
“The emergence of ISIS-affiliated extremist groups, persistent kidnappings by the Abu Sayyaf Group [ASG], attacks on government forces, and bombings, all indicated that domestic and international terrorism remained a serious problem,” the US State Department report said.
“Philippine military and police counterterrorism efforts kept up pressure on terrorist organizations, but were unable to prevent numerous attacks against government, public, and private facilities, primarily in central and western Mindanao,” it said.
The same report also noted how Duterte’s bloody war on drugs has “slowed progress towards shifting internal security functions” from the military to the police and how manpower and resources of security forces shifted away from the fight against terrorism.
“The focus on counter-narcotics has increased workload and operational tempo for security forces. Specialized law enforcement units possess some necessary equipment, but numerous unfulfilled needs remain, and sustainment and maintenance of equipment often exceeds fiscal and human resources,” the report said.
Responding to the report, Presidential Spokeman Ernesto Abella said poverty was the cause of terrorism in the country, and said the government was fighting the latter and addressing the former.
“We recognize that poverty in Mindanao and the sense of hopelessness it brings spawns terrorism. It is for this reason that while we are fighting terrorism, we are also fighting poverty,” he added.
Abella said the President has already approved the Comprehensive Peace Roadmap aiming to provide peace and development by addressing the issue on the Bangsamoro.
“We can sign a hundred peace agreements but if those on the ground do not immediately feel the dividends of peace, those agreements will [not] be sustainable,” he said.
In its latest country-by-country assessment, the US State Department designated Iran as the top “state sponsor of terrorism.”
The department pinpointed Islamic jihadist groups Islamic State Al Qaida and the Taliban as the leading culprits for terror attacks.
But it said overall attacks had fallen nine percent last year from 2015, and deaths were down 13 percent.
Attacks and deaths were up notably in Iraq, Somalia and Turkey.
The report said a common thread for many of the terror attacks last year “was adherence to violent extremist ideology put forth by a fundamentalist strain of Sunni Islam that perceives itself to be under attack by the West and in conflict with other branches of Islam.”
At the same time, predominantly Shiite Iran was again officially dubbed the leading state sponsor of terrorism. The report cited its longstanding support for the powerful Lebanese Shiite movement Hezbollah, a US-designated terror organization.
The report cited Hezbollah’s support of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad with troops and supplies as well as its attacks on Israeli soldiers along the Lebanon-Israel border.
In addition, the report said Iran “remained unwilling” to put on trial senior Qaida members whom it has detained.
“Since at least 2009, Iran has allowed Al Qaida facilitators to operate a core facilitation pipeline through the country, enabling Al Qaida to move funds and fighters to South Asia and Syria,” it said.
The department’s acting coordinator for counterterrorism, Justin Siberell, gave no reason for the decline in attacks, but noted the rising pressure last year from coalition forces on the Islamic State group in its Syria and Iraq strongholds.
But as Islamic State loses territory, he said, its fighters and sympathizers are dispersing, and the threat of attacks elsewhere—in new IS locations, and in the IS fighters’ home countries—is on the rise.
“Another feature of the terrorism landscape in 2016—and this is a continuation of what we saw in 2014 and 2015—is the exploitation by terrorist groups of ungoverned territory and conflict zones to establish safe havens from which to expand their reach,” said Siberell.
After its expansion to the Libyan coastal city of Sirte last year, Somalia, Yemen, northeastern Nigeria, portions of the Sinai Peninsula, the Afghanistan-Pakistan border regions and portions of the Philippines have become “safe-haven environments” for IS fighters, the report said.
Terrorist groups have retained the ability and intent to conduct bombings, shootings, and ambushes against targets of their choice, as seen in a Nov. 28 incident in which a bomb was discovered and disarmed near the US Embassy in Manila, the report said.
The report cited the Abu Sayyaf Group’s beheading of several hostages, the deadly September bombing in Davao City, clashes between state forces and communist rebels in July, and the siege of Butig town, Lanao del Sur by Islamic State-linked fighters in November.
The report said the Philippine government recognized the threat posed by radicalized citizens supporting ISIS and ISIS supporters traveling to the Philippines to promote violent extremism in the country or seek safe haven.
Members of numerous groups—including parts of the ASG; the Dawlah Islamiyah Lanao (DIL), commonly referred to as the Maute Group; and Ansar-al Khalifah Philippines—have pledged allegiance to ISIS.
ISIS called on its supporters in Southeast Asia to join these groups and attack targets in the Philippines, and named former ASG leader Isnilon Hapilon as its regional leader.
“There were dozens of small arms and improvised explosive device attacks, kidnappings for ransom, and extortion efforts,” the report said.
The report came out even while government forces were fighting with ISIS-inspired Maute and Abu Sayyaf fighhters after attacking Marawi City in Mindanao for nearly two months now.
Isnilon Hapilon, who is currently at large, is one of the masterminds of the attack in Marawi, burning down entire city on the Day of Ramadan on May 26.
Hapilon and some of his Abu Sayyaf units have partnered with the Maute group in order to carry out the ISIS mandate.
