Siege cost Islamic State $1.5 million, general says
Philippines — The Islamic State sent at least $1.5 million to finance the recently ended siege of the southern Philippine city of Marawi, with the assault leaders using the 2014 Islamic State seizure of the Iraqi city of Mosul as a blueprint, the Philippine military chief said.
The battle defeats of the brutal group in Syria and Iraq, and now the Islamic State-aligned gunmen in Marawi, however, show a major vulnerability of the extremists: Their audacious territorial occupations tend to crumble over time as they’re cornered in urban settings by the relentless firepower of U.S.-backed offensives, Gen. Eduardo Año said late Monday.
The counterterrorism victories have given governments confidence that Islamic State — which shocked the world with its rise a few years ago — could be stopped and defeated, said Año, who oversaw the military campaign that ended the five-month siege in Maraside wi this week.
“They underestimated the reaction of the different countries in the world, the alliances,” he said.
The siege, which was launched on May 23, left more than 1,100 combatants and civilians dead, including more than 900 militants, and displaced some 400,000 residents, including the entire population of Marawi, a bastion of the Islamic faith in the predominantly Roman Catholic Philippines. Military air strikes, artillery and heavy machinegun fire turned the lake, city’s central business district and outlying communities into a smoldering wasteland of disfigured buildings and bullet-pocked mosques and houses.
It was one of the most devastating urban fights the country has witnessed since World War II, the military chief said.
Islamic State sent $1.5 million in batches to finance the attack, Año said, citing intelligence information, including some provided by the U.S.