AFP monitors terror groups for threats of ‘sympathy attacks’

MANILA, Philippines — The military is watching local terrorist groups that may launch “sympathy attacks” after Iran vowed to avenge the US killing of its top general in Iraq, the new chief of staff of the Armed Forces of the Philippines said on Monday.

“Our first action is to monitor those affiliated [with terror groups]. As of now, we have not monitored anything, but we will continue monitoring and, of course, we are looking at the possible targets of Iranians [in] other countries and in our country,” Lt. Gen. Felimon Santos Jr. told reporters at Camp Aguinaldo on Monday.

Santos, who took over from Gen. Noel Clement as military chief on Saturday, said President Rodrigo Duterte had discussed with the heads of the security services the possible impact on the Philippines of the rising tensions in the Middle East after the US killing of Maj. Gen. Qassem Soleimani, commander of Iran’s elite Al Quds force in Baghdad on Friday.

“He (Duterte) is very concerned with the safety of the Filipinos in Iran and Iraq,” Santos said. “We have 1,600 in Iran, most are married to Iranians, and we have almost 6,000 in Iraq.”

Duterte, he said, ordered the military to be ready to use its ships and planes to evacuate the Filipino migrants should the tensions between the United States and Iran erupt into conflict.

“[W]e are ready to deploy anytime,” Santos said.

Lt. Gen. Archie Gamboa, the Philippine National Police officer in charge, told a press briefing on Monday that Duterte had encouraged security forces to “watch CNN” to be able to keep abreast of developments in the Middle East.

“Our task is only local, watch for any retaliatory action [by] other sectors of society who might be sympathetic to [Iran],” Gamboa said.

“[We] have no such threat[s],” he added.

Tensions escalated in the Middle East on Sunday after US President Donald Trump insisted that Iranian cultural sites were fair game for the US military, dismissing concerns within his own administration that doing so could constitute a war crime under international law.

Trump warns Iraq

Trump also warned Iraq that he would levy punishing sanctions if it expelled American troops in retaliation for a US airstrike in Baghdad that killed Soleimani.

The Iraqi parliament voted on Sunday to oust US troops based in the country in response to the US attack that killed Soleimani in Iraqi territory.

Trump first raised the prospect of targeting Iranian cultural sites Saturday in a tweet. Speaking with reporters Sunday as he returned to Washington from his holiday stay in Florida, he doubled down, despite international prohibitions.

“They’re allowed to kill our people. They’re allowed to torture and maim our people. They’re allowed to use roadside bombs and blow up our people. And we’re not allowed to touch their cultural sites? It doesn’t work that way,” Trump said.—With a report from AP