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Philippine president wants US forces out of restive south
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In this Wednesday, Aug. 31, 2016 photo released by Presidential Photographers Division, Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, front center, salutes the flag-draped coffins of 15 soldiers killed in Monday's gunbattle with Muslim Abu Sayyaf militants during his visit to Western Mindanao Command in Zamboanga city in southern Philippines. Abu Sayyaf extremists killed 15 Philippine Army soldiers in fierce fighting Monday in the country's restive southern island of Jolo, dealing the government its largest single-day combat loss under President Duterte, who ordered the militants to be crushed for their brutality. (Robinson Ninal/Presidential Photographers Division via AP) (Presidential Photographers Division via AP/Robinson Ninal)
T
he Philippine president says he wants U.S. forces out of his country's restive south and blamed America for the restiveness of Muslim militants in the region and for the killings of Muslim Filipinos during a U.S. pacification campaign in the early 1900s.
President Rodrigo Duterte said Monday that Americans would constantly be in danger in the southern Mindanao region, where Islamic extremists would constantly try to kill or kidnap them for ransom. He did not mention any deadline or give other details.
The U.S. Embassy did not immediately issue any reaction.
Duterte also criticized President Barack Obama for raising human rights concerns about the Philippine leader's bloody crackdown against drugs when the U.S. leader, he says, has not apologized for the American atrocities against local Muslims. (dan)
