QUEZON City, Philippines (Eagle News) — Authorities have confirmed that there were foreigners fighting alongside the Maute Group in Marawi.
Senator Cynthia Villar said that this was admitted by security officials in a briefing called by the Senate early this week.
Authorities confirmed that of the 33 extremists who were killed in the clashes with the government in Marawi, eight were foreigners—two Saudi men, a Chechen, an Indian, two Malaysians, Yemeni and an Indonesian.
“This is not a complete list but the list illustrates and confirms the heavy presence of foreign terrorists as well as local terrorist(s) who come from the different parts of the country that justifies your declaration of martial law on the basis of rebellion and invasion,” Mindanao Development Authority Secretary Datu Hj. Abul Khyar Alonto, who submitted the list to the President, said.
Earlier, in a news briefing, Solicitor General Jose Calida already made the confirmation.
“What’s happening in Mindanao is no longer a rebellion of Filipino citizens. It has transmogrified into invasion by foreign terrorists who heeded the clarion call of the ISIS to go to the Philippines if they find difficulty in going to Iraq or Syria… They want to create Mindanao as part of the caliphate,” he said.
“Our security and intelligence units have monitored ISIS and Maute literature and publications containing orders to their adherence to attack the Philippine government and established a “wilayat” or ISIS province in Mindanao,” Calida added.