Government forces struggle to beat Marawi extremists who revel in urban warfare
In their dark green woodland camouflage, the marines looked out of place on the paved streets lined by brightly painted facades, barren concrete walls, or exposed breeze blocks. Even though they had been fighting in Marawi for several months, they still felt out of place.
Ever since the Maute Group seized the city in May, the military and police units have been battling to dislodge the ISILaligned extremists. Government forces vastly outnumber the insurgents, who at their peak strength were estimated at between 800 and 1,200. The Maute’s numbers have shrunk considerably since, but a handful still manage to hold out in the city centre.
The prolonged siege has raised questions about the performance of the armed forces, and the military are the first to admit that this is not the kind of fight they are set up for.
“This is a new kind of warfare for us, for the longest time we have been fighting a guerrilla war, we fought in the jungle,” said Col Romeo Brawner, the army spokesman in Marawi.
This line is echoed by the troops in the city, who have had to learn the hard way how to advance through the builtup neighbourhoods of Marawi, whose 200,000 inhabitants fled the city at the onset of the battle.
They suffered stiff losses trying to storm entrenched positions, and many soldiers fell victim to improvised explosive devices planted by the insurgents, or to snipers.
The Philippine military has received extensive training by the US to search out and destroy insurgent groups hiding in the dense jungle of the country’s southern islands, where the country’s Muslim minority lives, and where Marawi is. But no one anticipated an extremist group having the audacity to take control of a city, and urban combat was not taught to the troops.
Fearing to further alienate the already disgruntled Muslim population, the government has also refused to allow in foreign special forces to counter the sniper threat.
“It’s the one capability that they could have utilised beyond intelligence. But from a propaganda and an optic standpoint, the Philippines government didn’t want any foreign troops to help out in a substantial way,” said Justin Richmond, founder of the development consultancy impl. project and former US special forces team leader sent to the southern Philippines.
Despite those difficulties, the military was quick to take back most of the city. But commanders have hesitated finishing off the insurgents, knowing that the final phase of the battle against a cornered enemy will be costly.
“The stalemate we have right now is that none of the generals want to take back those last five blocks, because they are going to lose a lot of men,” Mr Richmond said.
“It will absolutely ruin someone’s career unless [president] Duterte comes to them and says, ‘Look, just do what you need to do to get the job done’. That’s what needs to happen, and that’s what needed to happen for the past three months.”