Smoke seen in a clash between the Philippine army and Islamic militants in Marawi on September 16 (Photo: AFP/VNA)Hanoi(VNA) - Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines on October 12 launched theircoordinated air patrols as part of effort to speed up their fight against Islamicmilitants, who have besieged Marawi, the southern city of the Philippines.
The patrols are made four months after the three countries conducted maritimepatrols to prevent Islamic State group-aligned militants in the southernPhilippines from fleeing to neighboring nations.
Malaysian DefenseMinister Hishammuddin Hussein said the same day that the conflict in thesouthern Philippine city shows that terrorist organisations linked with theIslamic State group have made use of the region's leaky borders and conspiredwith local terrorist groups.
The IS militants have swept through Marawi city on the southern island ofMindanao since May 23, killing more than 800 people and displacing more than 500,000 others.
Given this,President Rodrigo Duterte has extended martial law on the Mindanao island untilthe end of this year to make it easier for security forces to fight theterrorists.-VNA
VNA
