‘MILITANTS HAD PLANNED MUCH LARGER-SCALE ATTACK’
A video of them plotting to wreak more havoc shown to country’s leaders
MARAWI CITY
PHILIPPINE troops thwarted an original plan drawn up by the Islamist militants now holed up here to “spread terror” in a rampage of violence that would have given them full control of the southern town, the military said yesterday.
“There was indeed a bigger plan and it was supposed to wreak more havoc,” military spokesman Restituto Padilla said as aerial bombing resumed against fighters, who have sworn allegiance to the Islamic State (IS).
Philippine senators said members of the upper house were last week shown a video of the militants, led by a group known as Maute, plotting a far more sophisticated siege than the attack they launched on May 23.
“It was clear that the end goal of these terrorists, the Maute group, is to make Marawi independent, or to separate it from the republic,” Senator JV Ejercito said.
“With a plan like this, this is already rebellion and a threat to national security.
“So, declaration of martial law is justified,” he said, referring to the martial law declared by President Rodrigo Duterte.
Armed forces Chief of Staff General Eduaro Año said the images showed an intention to dismember “a portion of the Philippine territory by occupying the entire city here and establishing their own Islamic state or government”.
The battle for Marawi City has raised concern that IS, on a back foot in Syria and Iraq, is building a regional base in Mindanao that could pose a threat to neighbouring Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore, too.
Officials said that, among the several hundred militants who seized the town, there were about 40 foreigners from Indonesia and Malaysia, but also fighters from India, Saudi Arabia, Morocco and Chechnya.
The military has said the fighters are increasingly penned in around a built-up area of the town, and troops have been clearing houses that the militants had defended with snipers for the past two weeks.
On Tuesday, Duterte ordered the military to “crush” militants still occupying parts of a southern city, as photos emerged of bombed buildings and mangled corpses.
Duterte described the rampage here by the militants, as a “rebellion” demanding a forceful response.
“I am not ordering you to take an ordinary police action.
“I am ordering you to crush our enemy,” he told soldiers while visiting the country’s south.
“When I say crush them, you have to destroy everything, including lives.
“Rebellion is no joking matter,” said Duterte. Agencies