Philippines Struggles to Suppress ISIS-Linked Rebels as Foreign Fighters Found by Jake Maxwell Watts, Wall Street Journal

Philippine troops accidentally killed 11 of their comrades as they battled Islamist militants, the latest in a series of incidents illustrating how the military is struggling to contain the threat of rebel groups.

Soldiers are fighting street by street in the southern city of Marawi with the Muslim-extremist Maute group, which raised the black Islamic State flag there more than a week ago after authorities attempted and failed to arrest the leader of an allied faction.

The friendly fire incident announced Thursday, in which an airstrike Wednesday used unguided ordnance after the military ran short of guided missiles, came as the government said eight of the militants killed in fighting there were citizens of Saudi Arabia, Yemen and other foreign countries. That announcement bolstered fears that the complexion of the Philippines’ militant uprising was becoming increasingly international, as Islamic State, also known as ISIS, loses territory in Iraq and Syria.

The threat is all the more severe given the longstanding failure of the Philippine military to eradicate the many extremist groups that recruit from the poor, marginalized Muslim communities in the jungles of the southern island of Mindanao. The region, which includes Marawi, has spawned and supported myriad insurgencies dating back to at least the 1970s. Successive governments have promised to bring peace to Mindanao, but none have.

Security experts fear that disparate extremists are coalescing in Mindanao under the Islamic State banner, establishing themselves in a country with a weak rule of law, thriving illegal arms trade and ready supply of brutal criminal factions…

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U.K. Terrorism Report on Saudi Arabia May Be Kept Secret by Tom O'Connor, Newsweek

The results of a government-sponsored inquiry into the sources of funding for Islamist militant groups operating in the U.K. may be kept hidden forever due to the nature of its findings, the U.K.'s Home Office has said, according to local media.

The investigation was reportedly authorized by former Prime Minister David Cameron during his Conservative administration's bid to convince the Liberal Democrat opposition to approve British airstrikes against positions held by the Islamic State militant group (ISIS) in Syria in December 2015. The Liberal Democrats were satisfied and, the following month, British intelligence began looking into how foreign entities transferred funds to promote radical ideology in the U.K. According to a report published Wednesday in The Guardian, however, the Home Office not only declined to disclose any information regarding its findings, it suggested it may never do so, due to the "very sensitive" nature of the results which are believed to contain references to Saudi Arabia, a close ally of the U.K. and known sponsor of ultraconservative Wahhabist Sunni Muslim ideology around the world.

A Home Office spokesperson told the publication that a decision may be made on the inquiry after the nation's next government is elected, but the article provided no further details. The foreign affairs spokesperson for the Liberal Democrats, Tom Brake, has written to Prime Minister Theresa May, who was the home secretary at the time the inquiry was launched in 2016, demanding answers. He criticized May's inaction despite two deadly acts committed by U.K. citizens—Khalid Masood in March and Salman Ramadan Abedi last week—that a left a combined 28 people dead and dozens more injured since the 2016 inquiry was opened. Both individuals were said to be inspired by the hardline Islamist ideology the Home Office was tasked with investigating…

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