In many ways the battle for Marawi has been a curious event which has seen bandits belonging to the allegedly ISIS affiliated Maute Group attacking a Muslim city in order to raise their public profile and demonstrate their power to the Philippine government. Philippine SOF units and Marines worked hard to cordon the enemy into a small neighborhood […]
SOF
The Light Reaction Regiment’s Trojan Horse mission in Sulu
I sat across from a Light Reaction Regiment operator at a restaurant where we tried in vain to escape some of the humidity. He’s smoking a cigarette while we discuss his unit and their operations. He is a quiet man, quick to tell me that his job is to execute the mission rather than complain […]
Liaison Control Element: US Special Forces in Marawi
The usual breathless media reports have emerged from the Philippines latest security crisis in regards to American Special Operations units present in the area. To be sure, the siege of Marawi has spun into a serious attack which bares some resemblance to the 2013 siege of Zamboanga. Philippine SOF units such as the Light Reaction […]
A never before seen look inside the Light Reaction Regiment of the Philippines
On any given day in the Philippines, the front page of your daily newspaper can be treated like the sports pages as the public follows along and keeps score between the various terrorist groups and the Armed Forces of the Philippines. A typical day’s headlines in the Philippine Star read: “Sayyaf kidnaps soldier.” “3 killed […]