Martial law in southern Philippines

MANILA: Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has imposed martial law on the southern region of Mindanao to combat militants who have declared allegiance to the Islamic State group.

Duterte acted after security forces on Tuesday battled dozens of gunmen in Marawi, a city of about 200,000 people. One policeman and two soldiers died in the fighting, authorities said.

Tuesday's violence was the latest in a series of deadly clashes with militants who have pledged allegiance to the Islamic State (IS) group, and are based throughout Mindanao.

Duterte's declaration fulfilled an oftenrepeated promise to impose martial law to combat the IS-linked militants, whom he has said are a growing threat to national security.

But he has said repeatedly that martial law may be needed to solve many other problems, including illegal drugs.

Authorities said they were battling members of two of the best-known groups to have declared allegiance to IS, the Abu Sayyaf and Maute organisations.

The military said it was hunting Isnilon Hapilon, an Abu Sayyaf leader who has been named the Philippine head of IS. The US government is offering a $5million bounty for his capture.

The Abu Sayyaf is infamous for kidnapping foreigners and killing them if ransoms are not paid. It is also blamed for the nation's worst terror attacks, including the 2004 bombing of a ferry in Manila Bay that claimed more than 100 lives.

Duterte has said repeatedly the growing influence of Islamic State was one of the nation's top security concerns, and martial law was necessary to stop it.

However Islamist militancy is not new to the southern Philippines, where a decades-long Muslim separatist insurgency claimed more than 120,000 lives.

Muslim rebels orchestrated a siege in the southern city of Zamboanga in 2013 that left more than 200 people dead, but the government of then-president Benigno Aquino did not declare martial law.

Aquino also said he had considered imposing martial law just before standing down last year in Sulu, island strongholds of the Abu Sayyaf in the far south of Mindanao. - AFP