WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 12th August, 2020) The Islamic State terror group (outlawed in Russia) is trying to take advantage of the Philippines armed forces' efforts to help fight the novel coronavirus pandemic to strengthen its position and make new advances, the Inspector-General of Operation Pacific Eagle-Philippines said in a report to the US Congress on Tuesday.
"This quarter, ISIS-EA [Islamic State-East Asia], the Philippine faction of the terrorist group, sought to capitalize on the Philippine government's deployment of military assets to assist with the response to the coronavirus... pandemic," the report said.
The Inspector-general noted that this is the 11th quarterly report on Operation Pacific Eagle-Philippines, the overseas contingency operation to support the country's military fight the terror group.
"In general, efforts to reduce extremism in the Philippines do not appear to have made a substantial difference since the launch of Operation Pacific Eagle-Philippines," the report said.
The Philippines has reported 139,538 novel coronavirus cases with 2,312 virus-related deaths, according to the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center on Tuesday.
