Pentagon to Spend Nearly $5M on Marine Corps Mission in the Philippines by Todd South – Military Times
Despite a siege last year that retook a major city in the Philippines and killed an estimated 1,000 ISIS fighters, reducing their ranks to about 200 in the area, Pentagon spending on the military mission there has nearly tripled, according to a recent report.
And most of that money is being spent on running a fleet of drones to monitor terrorist activities while supporting ground patrols to clear out ongoing contested areas of the country.
Nearly $5 million is to fund the Marine Corps to “advise, plan and execute missions in support of Philippine counterterror operations,” according to the report.
The Lead Inspector General Report for Operation Inherent Resolve and Operation Pacific Eagle-Philippines covers April to June and details measures, reporting and progress of both operations aimed at defeating the Islamic State.
The Philippines operation uses mostly U.S. Special Operations Forces to train, advise and assist, especially with ISR assets, as the Philippine military continues to pursue remaining ISIS fighters after having cleared them from the provincial capital city of Marawi, which was seized by ISIS in September and held five months last year…