Philippines puts bounty on Islamist leaders’ heads

WE HOPE THIS WILL BEAR SIGNIFICANT ACCOMPLISHMENTS LEADING TO ARREST OF HAPILON AND MAUTE BROTHERS

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte offered large bounties on Monday for the leaders of Islamist fighters holding parts of a southern city as the military warned its recapture may take longer than expected.

Hundreds of gunmen loyal to the Islamic State (IS) group are battling air strikes, artillery and ground forces in Marawi.

Up to 2,000 civilians are believed to have been trapped for two weeks in districts held by the militants, the government says. The fighting has killed at least 178 people and caused nearly 250,000 others to flee, government officials say.

Fresh rewards totalling 20-million pesos ($410,000) are on offer from Duterte for the “neutralisation” of Isnilon Hapilon, Abdullah Maute and his brother Omarkhayam Maute, a military statement read.

“We hope that this will bear significant accomplishments leading to the eventual arrest and neutralisation of Isnilon Hapilon and the Maute brothers,” military chief of staff Gen Eduardo Ano said.

Half the amount will be for Hapilon, whom Ano described as the “amir” or top leader of the IS in the Philippines. The US government also has a $5m bounty on Hapilon’s head for the kidnapping and killing of US citizens, as well as a standing bounty of 7.4-million pesos by the Philippines government.

Manila says it is fighting up to 250 gunmen holed up in central Marawi.

The gunmen are a combination of Hapilon’s Abu Sayyaf group, blamed for the country’s deadliest bombings as well as kidnappings, and militants led by the Mautes and based in the Marawi region.

More than 224,000 residents of the city and nearby towns had fled the fighting, the provincial government said on Monday.

Shortly after the violence erupted Duterte imposed martial law across the southern region of Mindanao to quell what he said was an IS bid to establish a base in the country.

The military warned on Monday that defeating the militants, who are also believed to include several foreign fighters, was proving “difficult” even though 120 of them had been killed.

The gunmen were using an extensive network of tunnels and basements built many years ago beneath the buildings they had seized, military spokesman Lt-Col Jo-ar Herrera said.

They had also sited powerful weapons such as machine guns inside mosques and traditional Islamic schools that are off-limits to air strikes and artillery attacks, he added.