ISIS claims responsibility for Manila resort attack
ISIS claims responsibility for Manila resort attack
By Yaron Steinbuch
June 1, 2017 | 2:27pm | Updated
A shooting erupted at a popular hotel and leisure complex in Manila early Friday, sending terrified guests and workers fleeing from an attack claimed by ISIS, according to reports.
Police, firetrucks and SWAT teams swarmed to the Resorts World in the Philippines capital where images showed victims being loaded onto ambulances, CNN reported.
“Resorts World Manila is currently on lockdown following reports of gunfire from unidentified men,” the company said on its Twitter account.
“The company is working closely with the Philippine National Police to ensure that all guests and employees are safe.”
ISIS said “lonewolf soldiers” from its group carried out the attack, according to the SITE Intelligence Group that monitors terrorist organizations, Agence France-Presse reported.
A source at one of the resorts told Reuters that employees were being evacuated and that police were in full control of the situation near the Ninoy Aquino International Airport.
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A video posted on Twitter showed crowds rushing out of the Resorts World in another the sound of gunfire could be heard, Sky News reported.
“I live right behind Resorts World … and you can see the smoke and hear gunshots and people are shouting at each other,” one witness said in footage posted on Facebook.
Local journalist James Agustin of DZBB Super Radyo uploaded a video in which a man said men burst into the vast complex, The Telegraph of the UK reported.
Gunshots were then heard on the second floor
Resorts World Manila contains hotels, restaurants and bars in Newport City, a residential and commercial center in metropolitan Manila.
The Philippines has been battling ISIS jihadists in the south of the country. The country has been hit with incidents of terrorism, especially on the southern island of Mindanao, where President Rodrigo Duterte declared martial law last week.
There, in the city of Marawi, government forces have been battling ISIS-linked militants for control of the largely Muslim city where at least 70,000 residents have been displaced and 140 people were killed.
ISIS flags have been spotted around Marawi and images have been circulated of fighters posing with stolen government weapons and armored vehicles hit by rocket-propelled grenades.
Duterte has suggested he might extend martial law until the end of the year — or impose it nationwide.
“They are trying to correct the way of living for everybody. They do it by killing people, invoking the name of God and that is a very terrible ideology,” he said about ISIS, the Daily Star reported.
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