MARAWI, Philippines: Philippine troops killed at least seven Muslim insurgents aligned with the Daesh group in a recent offensive in the south and recovered 45 heavy firearms and several bombs and land mines that were to be used in future attacks, military officials said Thursday.
About 60 Muslim militants were in the remote camp near Maguing in Lanao del Sur province when it was attacked Tuesday by fighter jets and army forces, military officials said. It was not immediately clear whether their leader, Abu Zacariah, was among those killed or managed to escape. One soldier was killed and five others were wounded in the fighting, the officials said.
Zacariah has been implicated in past attacks and bombings and is suspected of being the newly designated leader of the Daesh group in Southeast Asia, said army infantry brigade commander Brig. Gen. Jose Maria Cuerpo II, who oversaw Tuesday’s offensive.
Two factions of the militant group Daulah Islamiyah, linked to the Daesh group, appear to have merged and camped near Maguing in January. At the time, some power transmission towers in the region were bombed in attacks claimed by the Daesh group, prompting the military to intensify its surveillance and prepare for an offensive, Cuerpo said.
“The troops were ready to attack but they assessed it would be difficult to storm the encampment, which was protected by heavy weapons,” Cuerpo told reporters. He said that prompted him to first launch airstrikes against the insurgents.
Air force fighter jets dropped a dozen bombs, then army troops launched a ground attack and overran the camp. The insurgents fled in different directions and were pursued by troops, military officials said.
The military denied reports that the troops encountered guerrillas belonging to the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, the largest Muslim rebel group which signed a peace pact with the government in 2014 and is now helping govern a Muslim autonomous region in the south.
“We’d like to assure our partners in the MILF that we respect the peace accord,” military spokesman Col. Ramon Zagala said. “We are on track and we’re only targeting the peace spoilers.”
Daulah Islamiyah members were involved in the 2017 siege of Marawi, a southern Islamic city where hundreds of militants waving Daesh group-style black flags occupied commercial buildings and villages and took hostages. Filipino troops, backed by US and Australian surveillance aircraft, quelled the five-month siege, which left about 1,200 people dead — mostly militants — and destroyed the mosque-studded city’s commercial center and outlying residential communities.
The military has been launching offensives against small armed groups allied with the militants who laid siege on Marawi, including the Abu Sayyaf, which has been blacklisted by the US and the Philippines for past bombings, ransom kidnappings and beheadings in the south of the largely Roman Catholic country.
Philippines: 7 militants killed, bombs seized in recent raid
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Philippines: 7 militants killed, bombs seized in recent raid
- Air force fighter jets dropped a dozen bombs, then army troops launched a ground attack and overran the camp
Over one million people at Pope Leo XIV’s youth mass in Rome: Vatican
- The mass follows an evening vigil Saturday night at the vast open space on Rome’s outskirts
The mass, to be led by Pope Leo XIV, follows an evening vigil Saturday night at the vast open space on Rome’s outskirts.
China and Russia start joint drills in Sea of Japan
- Moscow and Beijing have strengthened their military cooperation in recent years
- After the drills, the two countries will conduct naval patrols in ‘relevant waters of the Pacific’
BIJING: China and Russia began joint naval drills in the Sea of Japan on Sunday as they seek to reinforce their partnership and counterbalance what they see as a US-led global order.
Alongside economic and political ties, Moscow and Beijing have strengthened their military cooperation in recent years, and their relations have deepened since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022.
The “Joint Sea-2025” exercises kicked off in waters near the Russian port of Vladivostok and would last for three days, China’s defense ministry said in a statement on Sunday.
The two sides will hold “submarine rescue, joint anti-submarine, air defense and anti-missile operations, and maritime combat.”
Four Chinese vessels, including guided-missile destroyers Shaoxing and Urumqi, are participating in the exercises alongside Russian ships, the ministry said.
After the drills, the two countries will conduct naval patrols in “relevant waters of the Pacific.”
China and Russia have carried out annual drills for several years, with the “Joint Sea” exercises beginning in 2012.
Last year’s drills were held along China’s southern coast.
The Chinese defense ministry said Friday that this year’s exercises were aimed at “further deepening the comprehensive strategic partnership” of the two countries.
China has never denounced Russia’s more than three-year war nor called for it to withdraw its troops, and many of Ukraine’s allies, including the United States, believe that Beijing has provided support to Moscow.
China insists it is a neutral party, regularly calling for an end to the fighting while also accusing Western countries of prolonging the conflict by arming Ukraine.
Thousands join pro Palestinian march over Sydney Harbor Bridge
- Some of those attending the march, called by its organizers the ‘March for Humanity’, carried pots and pans as symbols of the hunger
- New South Wales police said they were deploying hundreds of personnel and urged marchers to remain peaceful
SYDNEY: Thousands of demonstrators braved pouring rain to march across Sydney’s iconic Harbor Bridge on Sunday calling for peace and aid deliveries in the war-torn Gaza Strip, where a humanitarian crisis has been worsening.
Nearly two years into a war that Palestinian authorities say has killed more than 60,000 people in Gaza, governments and humanitarian organizations say a shortage of food is leading to widespread starvation.
Some of those attending the march, called by its organizers the ‘March for Humanity’, carried pots and pans as symbols of the hunger. Among the marchers was Wikileaks founder Julian Assange.
New South Wales police and the state’s premier last week tried to block the march from taking place on the bridge, a city landmark and transport thoroughfare, saying the route could cause safety hazards and transport disruption. The state’s Supreme Court ruled on Saturday that it could go ahead.
New South Wales police said they were deploying hundreds of personnel and urged marchers to remain peaceful.
Police were also present in Melbourne, where a similar protest march was taking place.
Diplomatic pressure ramped up on Israel in recent weeks. France and Canada have said they will recognize a Palestinian state, and Britain says it will follow suit unless Israel addresses the humanitarian crisis and reaches a ceasefire.
Israel has condemned these decisions as rewarding Hamas, the group that governs Gaza and whose attack on Israel in October 2023 began an Israeli offensive that has flattened much of the enclave.
Australia’s center-left Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has said he supports a two-state solution and Israel’s denial of aid and killing of civilians “cannot be defended or ignored,” but has not recognized Palestine.
Dormant Russia volcano erupts for first time in 450 years
- Pictures released by Russian state media show a towering plume of ash spewing from the Krasheninnikov volcano, which last erupted in 1550, according to the Smithsonian Institution’s Global Volcanism Program
MOSCOW: A volcano erupted for the first time in 450 years in Russia’s eastern Kamchatka region, the nation’s emergency authority said Sunday, days after one of the strongest earthquakes on record hit the region.
Pictures released by Russian state media show a towering plume of ash spewing from the Krasheninnikov volcano, which last erupted in 1550, according to the Smithsonian Institution’s Global Volcanism Program.
The plume is estimated to have reached an altitude of 6,000 meters (19,700 feet), Kamchatka’s Ministry of Emergency Situations said in a post on Telegram.
“The plume is spreading eastward from the volcano toward the Pacific Ocean. There are no populated areas along its path, and no ashfall has been recorded in inhabited localities,” the ministry said.
The volcano has been assigned an “orange” aviation hazard code, the ministry added, meaning flights in the area may be disrupted.
It came after Klyuchevskoy, another volcano in the region — the highest active in Europe and Asia — erupted on Wednesday.
Eruptions of Klyuchevskoy are quite common, with at least 18 occurring since 2000, according to the Global Volcanism Program.
Both recent eruptions followed one of the strongest earthquakes ever recorded, which struck on Wednesday, sparking tsunami warnings and evacuations of millions of people from coastal areas from Japan to Hawaii to Ecuador.
The worst damage was seen in Russia, where a tsunami crashed through the port of Severo-Kurilsk and submerged a fishing plant, officials said.
The magnitude 8.8 quake struck off Petropavlovsk on Russia’s Kamchatka peninsula and was the strongest since 2011 when a magnitude 9.1 quake off Japan caused a tsunami that killed more than 15,000 people.
At this summer camp run by grandmas, kids learn cooking skills and life advice
- The camp's held at a community center in Fullerton, a city in Orange County that’s home to a large Arab population, and many of the campers and grandmas come from those communities
LOS ANGELES: The smell of frying garlic and ginger is inescapable as it wafts through the room, while a row of fidgety kids watches an older woman in a blue plaid apron cooking in front of them.
“When I was growing up my mom used to make this a lot,” she says, showing a chicken stir fry recipe.
At this “Intergenerational Summer Camp” in a Southern California suburb, the grandmas are in charge. Every week, they taught a group of 8-to-14-year-olds how to cook a new dish and a do a handicraft such as sewing, embroidering, clay jewelry and card marking.
“Isolation and loneliness is something that seniors are challenged with, and they love having younger people around them,” said Zainab Hussain, a program manager at Olive Community Services, a nonprofit aimed at bringing older adults together that hosted the camp.
The camp was held at a community center in Fullerton, a city in Orange County that’s home to a large Arab population, and many of the campers and grandmas come from those communities. In between activities, the small room bustled with energy as the girls chatted and munched on snacks. Some of the volunteer grandmas milled around and watched, content to just be around the youngsters.
In July, during the final week of camp, Janna Moten and her friends were learning how to use a sewing machine and make pouches.
“Slowly, slowly,” one grandma chided as Moten stomped on the machine’s pedal, causing the needle to rapidly jerk up and down.
She pressed her foot down again, gingerly, and managed to sew a straight line.
“Honestly, I’m just here for the food,” the 9 year old quipped. Still, she beamed as she showed the two pieces of fabric she sewed together and turned inside out, forming a rectangular pocket.
Moten said she’s been practicing hand-stitching at home after learning embroidery a previous week.
“Sewing’s pretty easy, it’s just hard keeping the lines straight,” she said. She added that her own grandma was stricter than the ones at summer camp.
Haqiqah Abdul Rahim, the instructor for sewing, said many kids don’t learn these skills at school anymore through home economics classes, so they’re “filling in a gap.”
She stood in front of the room at the start of the activity, holding up various tools and explaining what they were: seam roller, thread snipper, rotary fabric cutter.
Rahim also doesn’t get to spend a lot of time with her grandchildren because they don’t live close.
“It is heartwarming to be able to interact with those who love being around you,” Rahim said.
The kids have learned about kitchen safety and how to cook with a grandma’s touch — such as mixing spices with water before adding them to a dish so they don’t burn, or using fresh turmeric.
The summer camp was held in partnership with the Golden Connections Club, started by high school student Leena Albinali last year to foster interactions between teens and elders.
The 14-year-old lives with her grandma but realized other students didn’t have the same opportunity to spend as much time with their grandparents. She also learned about ageism and other challenges faced by senior adults in one of her classes.
At monthly lunches, they invite seniors to the school and discuss topics where both groups can learn from each other, Albinali said.
“They treat us like we’re their grandchildren,” she said. The teens share what they know about artificial intelligence and its impact on their lives, and the elders share life stories and advice.
One of the most important things they’ve shared with her is to live in the moment, something that’s taken on new meaning for her.
“The people we have right now, they’re not going to be with us forever,” she said.
