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The transporter was carrying more than 90 people, mostly troops, when it overshot the runway on Jolo island. The dead are mainly military personnel, but three civilians on the ground were also killed, the defence ministry said. Rescue workers scoured the wreckage of the Lockheed C130 Hercules in a wood near several buildings. The aircraft burst into flames on crashing, sending a large black cloud into the air. Several dozen people were injured, and five are still missing, the military said. A nearby military hospital treated survivors.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is one step closer to beginning her new role as congresswoman. And she’s letting followers know that despite her political clout, she won’t forget where she came from. The 29-year-old took to social media on Thursday to celebrate a new office plaque that includes her soon-to-be official title of representative. However, not everyone was ready to celebrate the moment with the representative-elect and her reference to J.Lo. “Don’t be fooled by the plaques that we got, I’m still/I’m still Alex from the Bronx,” Ocasio-Cortez riffed on J.Lo’s lyrics from her song “Jenny From the Block.” But as for...

ZAMBOANGA, PHILIPPINES U.S. troops in the southern Philippines face the prospect of battle with descendants of the Muslim insurgents that brought U.S. General John "Black Jack" Pershing to the country more than a century ago. Before deploying to Basilan on the weekend, the Green Berets took seminars on the roots of Muslim rebellion in the poverty-wracked south as they brought Washington's war on terrorism to one of the most remote parts of the former U.S. colony. "It's an old war," said Datu Amil Jumaani, a Muslim professor who lectured the U.S. troops. Arab missionaries brought Islam to the Philippines in ...

ZAMBOANGA- Philippine police said Monday they have captured a member of the Al Qaeda-linked Abu Sayyaf group who joined in the abduction and beheading of Christian workers when he was 14. The suspect, Jirome Mustakin, now 22, was arrested Sunday in the southern port city of Zamboanga as he waited to board a ferry heading across the sea border to Sabah in Malaysia, police said. "Mustakin was positively identified by a witness as one of those who were involved in the kidnapping," city police chief Senior Superintendent Edwin de Ocampo told reporters. He said Mustakin was 14 when he joined...

Note: The following text is a quote: Philippines: Jihad against school principals This just in from our "This Is Why You're Poor" Department. Allah promised paradise to those who "slay and are slain" in the cause of jihad (Qur'an 9:111), but shooting your own society in the foot is also quite popular as a consequence. "Islamic rebels behead Philippine teacher: police," from Agence France-Presse, November 8: ZAMBOANGA, Philippines -- The severed head of a school principal who was abducted by Islamic militants in the troubled southern Philippines was dumped in a petrol station on Monday, authorities said. The head of...

Disaster Looms in Pakistan Decorum was abandoned as accusations ricocheted between the wood-panelled walls of Pakistan's national assembly on Monday night. "Murderers! Murderers of innocent people!" screamed an MP from a religious party, his yellow turban shaking as he wagged a finger towards the government benches. Five female parliamentarians, their faces concealed behind black and white burkas, slapped the benches with open palms. Another mullah stood up and started shouting. The speaker strained to maintain order. Others were less captivated by the debate on last month's siege of the Red Mosque, in which more than 100 people died. One...

'Fifty dead' in Philippines clash More than 50 people have been killed in clashes between troops and Islamist militants in the southern Philippines, military officials say. The fighting, on Jolo island, began on Thursday when militants ambushed a military convoy, killing 10 soldiers. Fifteen more soldiers died in later gun battles, and at least 27 militants were killed, the military said. It blamed Islamic militant group Abu Sayyaf and rogue elements in the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF). Thousands of Philippine troops, backed by US military trainers, are based in Jolo, some 950km (600 miles) south of the capital, Manila....

Six road workers kidnapped by Abu Sayyaf extremists were found beheaded Thursday in Jolo. The severed heads of the six mostly-Christian workers were found in the jungles of Jolo by soldiers, four days after the workers were seized while heading to a government road project, said Major General Ruben Rafael. The workers were seized by Al Bader Parad, a commander of the Abu Sayyaf, responsible for the worst terror attacks in Philippine history. One of the soldiers who found the remains said, on condition of anonymity, that the heads had been scattered in various places in Jolo. The soldier said...

The Philippine government and a Muslim rebel group have been urged to end a three-day battle that has left at least 12 people dead and displaced thousands.The Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC) called on both sides to abide by a 1996 peace agreement. Government troops and helicopter gunships pounded a base of the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) on southern Jolo island at the weekend. It followed a mortar attack on two marine camps on Friday. That attack, which killed two marines and a child, has been blamed on an MNLF commander, Habier Malik. Government forces retaliated by...

Excerpt - MANILA, Feb 3 (Reuters) - Muslim separatists in the southern Philippines are holding Manila's military chief, the head of the government's truce panel, a colonel and an undetermined number of soldiers hostage, senior military sources said on Saturday. Members of the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) were refusing to let Brigadier-General Ben Dolorfino, the commander of military forces in the capital, and Ramon Santos, government undersecretary for the peace process with the MNLF, leave their camp until their jailed founder was released. Local media reported that more than 20 senior military, defence and government officials were being held...

SOUTHEAST Asia's most wanted terrorist, Bali bomb mastermind Dulmatin, has been wounded in a fierce gunfight on remote Jolo Island in a significant win for US-backed Philippines forces battling to "eliminate" the Jemaah Islamiah kingpin and his Abu Sayyaf cronies. The Australian, in a series of interviews with the top Philippines and US commanders in the southern Philippines, has also learned that Dulmatin, along with his JI Bali bomber partner Patek, are on the run for their lives on Jolo. The pair spend no longer than six hours in one place on the jungle-covered volcanic island. According to Philippines Brigadier-General...

ZAMBOANGA, Philippines (AFP) - At least 10 Al Qaeda-linked militants were killed in the Philippines in intensified operations ordered by President Gloria Arroyo a day after the military said it had slain their main leader. The fighting on the southern Philippines island of Jolo came shortly after Arroyo pledged to wipe out the Abu Sayyaf group following the reported killing of one of its leaders, Abu Solaiman, in a gunbattle. The fighting took place when marine troops caught up with a large group of Abu Sayyaf militants near the town of Patikul, the military's southern command said. Initial reports from...

"They'll slit your throat on Jolo," people told Col. Jim Linder, head of a U.S. military task force in the Philippines. He recalled the prediction as we buzzed toward Jolo Island in a helicopter. Linder, a 45-year-old South Carolina native who has the remnants of a Southern drawl, has led Special Forces operations in the Middle East, Central and South America, Eastern Europe and Africa for the past 20 years. His latest assignment is the remote 345-square-mile island at the southernmost edge of the vast Philippines archipelago. Jolo is a known haven for Al Qaeda-linked terrorist groups, including Abu Sayyaf,...

<p>Cotabato City, 11 Sept. (AKI) - One of two top Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) members hiding in the southern Philippines province of Sulu, was reportedly killed by Filipino security forces, a spokesperson for the Muslim rebel groups in the south told Adnkronos International (AKI) on Monday. Eid Kabalu, spokesperson of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), said that their forces in the town of Jolo, some 590 miles south of Manila, have received information that one of two JI militants was killed in last week's offensive by the Philippine Army and Marines in the nearby town of Patikul.</p>

The military believed that plans by the Abu Sayyaf to conduct bombings in the country were averted with the discovery of the biggest camp of the group in Jolo, Sulu, ABS-CBN News reported Friday. An exclusive report of late night newscast Bandila said that as early as July, the military had already planned to raid the camp of the Abu Sayyaf in the jungles of Jolo after receiving information from residents living nearby. The camp was being used as training ground for Abu Sayyaf members and was once the hiding place of leaders Abu Sulayman, Khadaffy Janjalani and Radulan...

Soldiers in the Philippines have clashed with suspected Islamic militants on the southern island of Jolo, according to the military. Air strikes targeted a base thought to be used by the Abu Sayyaf group. Troops then engaged in heavy fighting with fleeing militants, officials said. The Philippine authorities have been trying to flush Abu Sayyaf rebels from hideouts in remote island locations. They are also searching for members of regional terror group Jemaah Islamiah. A military statement said the assault came after Abu Sayyaf leader Khadafi Janjalani and unidentified Jemaah Islamiah militants were seen in the area. Major-General Gabriel Habacon...

According to the report, at least five terrorists believed to be linked to al-Qaida murdered six or more Christians by gunfire after asking them if they believed in Christ on the front doorsteps of their homes. The incident occurred on the morning of Feb. 2 in the village of Patikul on the small Philippine island of Jolo, which is predominantly Muslim. At least one witness said a baby girl was among the casualties. Five people were injured during the door-to-door questioning. The Islamic terrorist group Abu Sayyaf, which means "Bearer of the Sword" is assumed responsible for the attacks, as...

GUNMEN attacked a group of Christian families in the southern Philippines yesterday, leaving at least six dead on the island of Jolo, a mainly Muslim island hotbed of Islamic militants, police said. The apparently sectarian violence in the town of Patikul occurred in a cluster of houses behind a Philippine Marine camp, and came less than three weeks before a small group of US soldiers deploy on the island for joint military exercises. At least five unidentified gunmen opened fire on three thatch houses before dawn, killing three men. The Muslim wife of one of the victims and their eight-month...

(2ND UPDATE) FOURTEEN soldiers have been killed while over a dozen have been wounded after followers of detained former rebel leader Nur Misuari attacked several military installations in Sulu island on Monday, a military spokesman said. Thirteen soldiers were killed after Misuari's followers and Abu Sayyaf members ambushed Marine Battalion Landing Team 5 in barangay (village) Pansul in Patikul town at 1:35 p.m., Lieutenant Colonel Buenaventura Pascual said. Fourteen other soldiers were wounded in the assault on the military truck, Pascual said. "Pursuit operations are ongoing," the military spokesman said, adding that they had yet to account for rebel casualties....

Troops in the Philippines have captured the "spiritual adviser" of the Abu Sayyaf along with two other members of the Al Qaeda-linked band, a military spokesman says. Colonel Gominto Tirino says Abraham Jumdaini was arrested on September 21 in the southern island of Jolo. However, his capture was only revealed today, after former Abu Sayyaf members identified him as the person recruited by Abu Sayyaf founder Abdurajak Janjalani. He says an anti-terrorist task force captured two more Abu Sayyaf members a day later but they are still being questioned. He declines to reveal reveal their identities. The military says Jumdaini,...