MILITARY CHIEF: MILITANTS MERELY SEEK RECOGNITION
Working house to house, military clears about 70% of Marawi
They wanted to show to the world that there is an ISIS branch here. GEN. EDUARDO AñO Armed Forces of the Philippines chief of staff
The militants who have besieged much of Marawi City in Mindanao over the past week include foreign fighters and local gunmen who want to establish a regional branch of the Islamic State group, the military said Tuesday.
Soldiers have taken control of about 70 percent of Marawi, where the gunmen have been fending off the army for a week, Armed Forces of the Philippines chief of staff Gen. Eduardo Año said. About 100 militants, troops and civilians have been killed.
“They wanted to show the world that there is an ISIS branch here which can inflict the kind of violence that has been seen in Syria and Iraq,” Año told The Associated Press, using an acronym for the Islamic State group.
The siege in Marawi followed an unsuccessful army raid that attempted to capture militant commander Isnilon Hapilon, who has allegedly been designated by the Islamic State group as its leader in the Philippines.
Hapilon escaped and gunmen loyal to him swept through the city of 200,000 people, torching buildings and taking hostages.
Año said the gunmen were prepared to fight because they had been planning to unleash attacks during the holy month of Ramadan to capture the attention of the IS group.
The unrest has boosted fears that the violent ideology of the IS is gaining a foothold in Mindanao, where a Muslim separatist rebellion has raged for decades.
President Rodrigo Duterte declared martial law in Mindanao for 60 days effective May 23, but lawmakers on Tuesday asked for a public session of Congress to determine whether it is still nec- essary.
Duterte’s declaration unnerved Filipinos who lived through the rule of late dictator Ferdinand Marcos, who imposed martial law in 1972 and used it to hold power for more than a decade.
The army insists the drawnout fight in Marawi is not a true sign of the militants’ strength because the military has held back to spare civilian lives.
Año said the military, working house to house, had cleared 70 percent of the city as of Tuesday morning.
Still, the fighters have turned out to be remarkably well-armed and resilient. Experts have warned that as IS is weakened in Syria and Iraq, battered by years of American-led attacks, Mindanao could become a focal point for regional fighters.
Three Malaysians, an Indonesian and possibly Arab extremists have been killed in the Marawi fighting, Año said. He said Hapilon was still hiding somewhere in the city and that authorities were working to confirm whether another top militant had been killed.
At least 65 militants and 15 Philippine troops have been killed, Año said. The bodies of 19 civilians have been recovered.
The fighters’ support network in Marawi remains unclear, though the power of one militant group — the Mautes —has grown in recent years.
Led by members of the city’s Maute clan, the group has become increasingly active across Lanao del Sur, and has been instrumental in the fighting this past week.