Jolo, Philippines – The Philippine military deployed thousands of extra troops on Tuesday to destroy an Islamic extremist group notorious for kidnapping foreigners, after 15 soldiers were killed, the authorities said.

President Rodrigo Duterte has ordered his security forces to wipe out the Abu Sayyaf, which has declared allegiance to the Islamic State group and recently beheaded two Canadian hostages.

But an assault that began last week on the heavily forested island of Jolo, one of the Abu Sayyaf’s strongholds about 900km south of Manila, has met fierce resistance.

Fifteen troops were killed and another 10 were injured in a single encounter with the Abu Sayyaf on Monday, regional military spokesman Major Filemon Tan said.

An additional 2,500 troops were on Tuesday deployed to Jolo and nearby islands, according to presidential spokesman Ernesto Abella.

“The president is focused on making sure that the threat from the Abu Sayyaf group should be terminated as soon as possible,” Abella told reporters in Manila.

Tan said the extra troops would join two brigades already involved in the fighting. He declined to give specific numbers, but there are at least 1,000 soldiers in a brigade.

Tan said the military would be able to achieve the goal set by Duterte, but conceded the rough terrain and possible assistance from local Muslim residents were working to the Abu Sayyaf’s advantage.

Duterte, who has been in office for two months, initially called on the Abu Sayyaf to lay down their arms but quickly adopted a tougher stance when his overtures were rejected.

“Go out and destroy them. Kill whoever they are,” Duterte said last week, in reference to the Abu Sayyaf.

The Abu Sayyaf is a loose network of a militants formed in the 1990s with seed money from Osama bin Laden’s Al-Qaeda network.

It is based in remote Muslim populated southern islands of the mainly Catholic Philippines, and has earned millions of dollars from kidnappings-for-ransom.

While its leaders have in recent years pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group, analysts say the group is mainly focused on a lucrative kidnapping business rather than religious ideology.

This year the militants beheaded two Canadians after their demands for millions of dollars in ransoms were rejected. The group is currently believed to be holding a Norwegian, a Dutchman and five Indonesian sailors, according to the military.

Tan said the military estimated it was fighting about 480 militants, but there could be more. He said the army had killed 30 militants, although this was impossible to verify.

Previous Philippine leaders made similar vows as Duterte to wipe out the Abu Sayyaf and failed, even with help from military ally the United States.

Italian hostage released by Abu Sayyaf in the Philippines

Click on thumbnail to view photos. Source: 

The Star/ANN, AFP

Tokyo – A strong typhoon slammed into northeastern Japan on Tuesday, dumping heavy rain and generating high waves that caused flooding along the Pacific coast.

Typhoon Lionrock made landfall near the city of Ofunato shortly before 6pm, the Japan Meteorological Agency said, after moving up Japan’s Pacific Ocean coastline.

Packing wind gusts up to 162 kilometres per hour, the storm was moving northwest at 50 kilometres per hour, it said.

It is the first typhoon to directly land in the region from the Pacific Ocean since the country’s present weather observation system was introduced in 1951, the agency said.

Typhoons usually approach Japan from the south and southwest before moving northward across the archipelago.

While there were no official reports of casualties, local media reported some minor injuries, such as a fall by a 40-year-old woman in strong winds.

The authorities warned of landslides and high water due to expected heavy rain of up to 8cm per hour. Landfall, which came at high tide, brought flooding along the coast.

Television footage showed local residents struggling to walk amid water above their knees in the city of Miyako, where some cars were half-submerged and some 600 people were advised to evacuate.

Miyako was one of the northeastern coastline cities hit in March 2011 by a deadly tsunami generated by a massive magnitude 9.0 offshore earthquake, which also triggered meltdown at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant.

Local authorities were using heavy machinery to pile huge sandbags along the coast in a bid to hold back raging waves, as they opened up some public buildings for use as shelters.

Schools were closed across the affected area, broadcasters reported.

At the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, efforts were made to secure construction cranes and equipment from violent winds, operator Tokyo Electric Power Co said. Some sensitive decommissioning work was suspended, they added.

The typhoon was affecting manufacturing and travel, with Toyota suspending production at two of its plants in the region, the company said, though added they were expected to restart on Wednesday.

Some 120 domestic flights have also been cancelled, public broadcaster NHK said.

In the northern part of the country, some Shinkansen super fast bullet trains were suspended.

Lionrock comes on the heels of two others that hit Japan in the past nine days, resulting in two deaths, the cancellation of hundreds of domestic flights and disruptions to train services.

Formed more than 10 days ago, it has become the longest-lasting typhoon of those that have developed north of the 30th parallel north, breaking a 46-year-old record, according to the private Weathernews agency.

The previous record-holding typhoon in that category was in 1970, which survived for nine days and six hours, Weathernews said on its website.

Lionrock was expected to cut across Japan’s main island of Honshu and head out to sea towards Russia and China, according to the weather agency.