MARAWI CITY: It was meant to be a “surgical operation” to capture one of the world’s most wanted terrorists, who was hiding and wounded in a southern Philippine city. The military had for months been conducting offensives against Islamist militants in nearby mountains, and came close to killing Hapilon during a bombing raid in January. “The problem here is they have a lot of relatives inside Marawi City,” Lorenzana said. The Abu Sayyaf is also blamed for the Philippines’ deadliest terror attacks, including the 2004 bombing of a ferry in Manila that claimed 116 lives. But the Abu Sayyaf, Maute and other hardline groups want to set up an Islamic caliphate in the south for IS, according to security analysts.

Source: Manila Times May 25, 2017 16:07 UTC