Attack in Philippines reveals new Islamic State-linked media unit

摘要

News of an Islamic State-claimed suicide attack against a church on Jolo island in the southern Philippines on 27 January was disseminated on Facebook by a Tagalog-language media outlet calling itself Silangang Asia Media Unit. Silangang, which is the Tagalog word for 'east', played a dissemination and translation role in the aftermath of the attack, translating a statement from the Islamic State's Amaq News Agency into Tagalog and then disseminating it to other Tagalog Facebook users. Jane's research has found no previous mention of this media unit, which indicates that it may be new, and it appears to have no web presence.