Australian Defence Force troops to be deployed to Philippines for ISIS fight

THE Australian Defence Force will deploy more troops to land, air and sea to help combat the rising threat of terrorism on our doorstep.

AUSTRALIAN military house-by-house combat tactics developed to rout Islamic State in Iraq will be deployed to the Philippines in recognition of fears Islamic jihadism is moving to entrench in our backyard.

The move is part of a wide strategy that will see Australian troops deployed to land, sea and air for the first time in a co-ordinated leading role in the terrorist fight in South East Asia.

Defence Minister Marise Payne has now confirmed Australian Defence Force mobile training teams, made up of at least 80 soldiers, will be established in the Philippines from this week to counter ISIS tactics to recruit from the region’s large Islamic community to push them toward extremism against the West.

“The spread of Daesh (ISIS) inspired terrorism is a direct threat to Australia and its interests and we are committed to working with our partners and allies to ensuring Daesh cannot establish a geographic foothold in the region,” she said, speaking in the Philippines at a summit for regional defence ministers and military chiefs.

Minister for Defence Marise Payne has confirmed ADF mobile training teams will be established in the Philippines to counter ISIS. Picture: AAP

Training will be provided to the Filipino Army and Marine Corps as well as a range of intelligence sharing initiatives.

As revealed exclusively by News Corp Australia in July, the Philippines had been sounding out the ADF to assist in urban warfare training at the height of conflict in Marawi on the southern island of Mindanao against foreign-led ISIS fighters. The RAAF was already deployed there to assist in surveillance.

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Filipino troops conceded while they had had decades of experience in jungle warfare against Islamic extremists and others, its soldiers were not equipped in training for street-street, house-by-house combat.

The five-month Marawi conflict, declared over only yesterday, cost more than 1100 lives including 165 soldiers and police and 900 jihadists, many of whom were fresh off the battlefields in Syria and Iraq.

Soldiers from the 1st Field Artillery Battalion at a fire support base, outside of Marawi. Picture: Gary Ramage

ADF personnel had been quietly moving to the Philippines since July in anticipation of an increased presence as have Australian Federal Police agents to assist in investigating ISIS-backed plots and intelligence sharing and to combat what Senator Payne described as “social media narratives”, in the cyber propaganda war.

“The ADF will provide mobile training teams that will begin providing urban warfare, counter-terrorism training in the Philippines in the coming days,” Senator Payne said.

“It is very practical training by the ADF which will support the Philippines Defence Force to be able to counter what are very brutal tactics that are employed by terrorists.”

She added: “These package of activities have been developed in very close co-operation with our friends in the Philippines and we are confident it will provide the sort of support to the Armed Forces of the Philippines who have worked so very very hard with efforts in Marawi that will help build capacity to deal with the threat from terrorist groups.”

She appealed to other ASEAN neighbours to help keep ISIS and extremism in check in the region.