Philippine envoys talk with militant leader during brief truce
MARAWI CITY, Philippines: Philippine emissaries met on Sunday with a leader of a militant group loyal to Daesh, officials said, taking advantage of a short truce in a battle over a southern city occupied by rebels for more than a month.
The eight Muslim leaders entered the conflict zone in the heart of Marawi City alongside rescue teams. It was not immediately clear what was discussed with Abdullah Maute, one of two brothers in charge of the Islamist group named after them.
Retired General Dickson Hermoso, who coordinates efforts to free trapped civilians, said a unilateral eight-hour truce by the army to mark the Eid Al-Fitr Islamic holiday was extended to enable the talks, details of which he withheld to avoid jeopardizing chances for dialogue.
“We need to balance this because this is very precarious,” Hermoso told reporters.
He said the Maute group released some women and children on Sunday and the emissaries had come under fire briefly from rebel snipers.
“We have only established a foothold with the Maute,” he said. “We hope both sides will again grant us the respite.”
The military had on Saturday said Abdullah Maute had fled from the town and was no longer in the fight. Though they have no solid evidence, the authorities believe his brother, Omarkhayam, was among three of the seven Maute brothers killed.
A source familiar with the meeting said the emissaries were from Marawi and were only granted access to Maute because they were of the same “Maranao” clan.
The seizure of Marawi has caused the biggest internal security crisis in decades for the Philippines, and a realization that the longfeared arrival of Daesh could be a reality.
Images of black-clad fighters and Daesh flags flying in Marawi has caused alarm in the mainly Roman Catholic nation, and the protracted occupation and presence of foreign fighters suggests the militants may have bigger designs on the southern Philippines than previously imagined.
The daily air strikes were halted on Sunday but small skirmishes took place as rebel snipers fired intermittently on positions held by troops.
Rescue teams tried to reach trapped civilians and recover bodies of dead residents killed in the heart of a city battered for weeks by clashes, air strikes and artillery shelling.