Duterte declares martial rule in besieged southern region

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte declared the country's south under martial rule for 60 days and cut short a visit to Moscow on Tuesday after Muslim extremists allied with the Islamic State Group laid seige to a Southern City. Presidential spokesman Ernesto Abella told a news conference in Moscow that martial rule took effect Tuesday evening in the Southern region of Mindanao. Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana said troops raided the hideout of a top terrorist suspect in southern Marawi City on Tuesday, sparking a gunbattle that prompted the militants to call for reinforcements from an allied group, the Maute. He said dozens of gun men occupied city Hall, a hospital and a jail and burned a Catholic church, a jail, a college and some houses in a bold attack taht killed at least two soldiers and a police officer and wounded 12 others. Several militants were killed.