WEB DESK
Top US and Australian officials today warned that foreign fighters may return to Southeast Asia from the Middle East and take up arms in their own countries.
Australian Defence Minister Marise Payne said, IS fighters may come back with battlefield skills and we need to be very aware of that. She was speaking at the start of an Australia-US ministerial summit also attended by US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, his Australian counterpart Julie Bishop and Pentagon chief Jim Mattis.
Mattis said, US President Donald Trump has instructed the Pentagon to annihilate IS in a bid to prevent escaped foreign fighters from returning home as they lose ground in Iraq and Syria.
The warning follows this weekend’s terror attacks in London, which were claimed by the Islamic State group, and
amid a jihadist threat in Philippines. Hundreds of civilians are trapped, in the Philippines, by fighting between the military and Islamist militants who have overrun the city of Marawi on the restive southern island of Mindanao.
The US and Australian officials were scheduled to hold a press conference later today.