A Caliphate Grows in the Philippines Can Rodrigo Duterte swallow his pride and ask for more U.S. help?
https://www.wsj.com/articles/a-caliphate-grows-in-the-philippines-1497395591
Islamic State’s occupation of the Philippine city of Marawi is in its third week with at least 58 soldiers and police killed along with 138 terrorists. With an estimated 500 fighters controlling part of the town, the siege continues to take a heavy toll on civilians. But there is some good news from the past week: U.S. troops and planes are on the scene offering “technical assistance” to the Philippine armed forces.
This is an embarrassment for President Rodrigo Duterte, who called on U.S. forces to leave Mindanao last September and proclaimed that his country would move into China’s orbit. Now he says he didn’t request U.S. help in Marawi. That leaves Filipinos to wonder who is calling the shots in their fight against terrorism.
Mr. Duterte spent his first year as President promoting extrajudicial killings of drug pushers and users, a campaign that led to more than 8,000 deaths. Meanwhile, Islamist fighters converged on the southern island of Mindanao from as far away as Chechnya. Indonesia’s National Counter-Terrorism Agency reports that 40 terrorists from the Islamic State-affiliated Jamaah Ansharut Daulah are fighting in Marawi.
Islamic State has made no secret of its plan to make Mindanao a new caliphate. But Mr. Duterte boasted that he would pacify or wipe out the local separatist groups that have pledged allegiance to Islamic State. He set two deadlines for retaking Marawi, including the country’s Independence Day on Monday. Mr. Duterte was absent from the celebrations due to illness, according to his office.
The Philippine military has a history of losing fights with Abu Sayyaf, one of the groups holding Marawi. The discovery in the city of safe houses with large amounts of cash shows that the group has significant resources. In the past Abu Sayyaf bought arms from government soldiers and bribed them to slip out of encirclements.
The Marawi fighting shows the military’s familiar limitations. Ten Philippine soldiers were killed by friendly air-force fire on May 31, and on Friday 13 Philippine marines were killed in street fighting.
The U.S. is helping with battlefield surveillance, coordination and training. Even limited nonkinetic assistance will shore up morale among government troops and prevent more friendly fire losses, but more is needed. In the decade after 9/11, a larger and more active U.S. force in Mindanao turned the tide against lawless groups like Abu Sayyaf.
Defeating the terrorists quickly is important because a lengthy siege would allow Islamist groups to recruit fighters and dispatch them to start more uprisings in Mindanao. As northern Iraq shows, once Islamic State is entrenched it can destabilize the wider region. Mr. Duterte’s tacit acceptance of U.S. help is a step forward, but the Philippines’ struggle to retake Marawi and prevent similar occupations requires that he swallow his pride and ask for an international force in Mindanao.
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