‘Battle for Marawi over’

> ‘No more terrorists’ in city, says military official

MANILA: The Philippines announced yesterday the end to five months of military operations in the southern city of Marawi against pro-Islamic State (IS) rebels, after a fierce and unfamiliar urban war that has marked the country’s biggest security crisis in years.

Offensive combat operations were terminated after troops prevailed in what was the last stand against rebel gunmen who clung on inside several buildings in the heart of Marawi, and refused to surrender.

The bodies of 40 of those fighters and two of their wives were found yesterday in two buildings and a mosque in the battle zone. Artillery and automatic gunfire were still heard yesterday and Reuters journalists saw flames behind a mosque.

Defence secretary Delfin Lorenzana said in killing off the extremists, the Philippines had “nipped the budding infrastructure and defeated terrorism”.

“In crushing thus far the most serious attempt to export violent extremism and radicalism in the Philippines and in the region, we have contributed to preventing its spread in Asia,” Lorenzana said in Clark at a meeting of regional defence ministers.

The rebel occupation stunned a military inexperienced in urban combat and stoked wider concerns that IS loyalists have gained influence among locals and have ambitions to use the island of Mindanao as a base for operations in Southeast Asia.

Those fears are compounded by the organisation of the militant alliance and its ability to recruit young fighters, stockpile huge amounts of arms and endure 154 days of ground offensive and air strikes that have devastated the city.

The authorities said 920 militants, 165 troops and police and at least 45 civilians were killed in the conflict, which displaced over 300,000.

The centre of the picturesque lakeside town is now in ruins due to heavy shelling and aerial bombing.

Military spokesman Major-General Restituto Padilla confirmed there was still gunfire, but there were “no more terrorists”.

Colonel Romeo Brawner, deputy task force commander in Marawi, said offensives had stopped but troops would secure the city from militant “stragglers” who might still be alive.

“If we find them and if they attack our soldiers or even civilians, then we will have to defend ourselves,” he said.

After months of slow progress, the army has made significant gains in retaking the city in the week since Isnilon Hapilon, IS “emir” in Southeast Asia, and Omarkhayam Maute, a leader of the Maute group, were killed in a nighttime operation. – Reuters