While all eyes were on Manchester, fighters loyal to the Islamic State were launching a big attack half a world away:
A group of heavily-armed militants from a group linked to Isis have reportedly stormed a city in the Philippines and engaged in firefights with the national army.
Residents of Marawi City, in the south of the country, were urged to remain indoors as at least 15 gunmen from a Muslim rebel group called Maute stormed the streets brandishing assault rifles.
The group, which is also known as the Islamic State of Lanao, have reportedly received support from Isis.
Troops and a special police force were deployed to the city after residents in a nearby village raised the alarm and appealed for help.
Marawi City is the provincial capital of Lanao del Sur on the southern island of Mindanao.
Like many countries in Asia and the south Pacific, the Philippines has been fighting a Muslim insurgency on and off for quite a while. In fact, if you count the original Moro War fought and won by General Pershing, since 1899. Groups in the Philippines alone that have pledged allegiance to the Islamic State include the Abu Sayyaf Group, Ansar al-Khilafah (also on Mindanao), Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (also on Mindanao), and Jemaah Islamiyah (a transnational Islamic terrorist group which which carried out the Bali bombing also has cells in in Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia). And that doesn’t count the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (also on Mindanao), with which the government signed a peace agreement in 2014.
The fight against the Islamic State is one war that extends across the entire globe. Hopefully President Trump understands this fact better than Obama did…
(Hat tip: Jihad Watch.)