Fighting continues in ‘liberated’ Philippine city

PHILIPPINES: Philippine troops killed four Islamic State grouplinked militants in a clash and occasional blasts thundered across Marawi on Wednesday, local time, after the president declared the southern city liberated from ``terrorist influence.’'

President Rodrigo Duterte visited the battle-scarred Islamic city on Tuesday and announced its liberation, sparking hopes that hundreds of thousands of residents could finally return home after being displaced for nearly five months by a bloody siege.

But as life and some traffic resumed in Marawi’s outskirts, the sounds of fighting rattled some who returned. ``We still hear explosions,’' Sohayla Pacalna, a souvenir shop owner, told The Associated Press. ``But we don’t know what they are.’'

After Duterte’s speech, troops pressed an offensive late Tuesday against 20 to 30 gunmen holding several hostages in buildings near the city’s Lanao Lake and killed four militants, Colonel Romeo Brawner said, adding that 10 soldiers were wounded. He said 854 militants have now been killed in the fighting, which broke out on May 23, along with 163 soldiers and policemen and 47 civilians.

Occasional bursts of gunfire and explosions sent clouds of smoke rising from the one-hectare (2.5-acre) area where soldiers said the remaining militants were hiding. The hilly community of narrow streets is now a gray wasteland of disfigured buildings and ruined houses. Troops used megaphones to urge the remaining militants to give up.

``The only way to get out alive is to surrender,’' military chief of staff General Eduardo Ano said.

Marawi, a mosque-studded centre of Islamic faith in the predominantly Roman Catholic Philippines, has been devastated by the siege by the militants, who waved Is-style black flags and hung them on buildings they occupied in Marawi’s business district and outlying areas, according to the military.

The insurrection prompted the military to launch a ground offensive and airstrikes, with the United States and Australia later backing the troops by deploying surveillance aircraft. -AP

PHOTO: REUTERS Teargas is fired by government troops as they continue their assault against the pro-islamic State militant group during a clearing operation in Marawi city, southern Philippines.