Philippines declares pro-IS militants in Marawi ‘finished’
CLARK: Philippine defence secretary Delfin Lorenzana declared the last of the pro-Islamic State group militants in southern Marawi city “finished” on Monday, exactly five months after the start of the siege that sparked fears of the group gaining a foothold in Southeast Asia.
Speaking at an annual meeting of Southeast Asian defence ministers, Lorenzana said troops recovered 42 bodies of the last group of militants.
“Those are the last group of stragglers of Mautes and they were caught in one building so there was a firefight, so they were finished,” he said.
Two security officials had earlier said that troops had found the bodies after capturing the building where the militants made their final stand.
Lorenzana said the last hostages the militants had been holding were recovered earlier. “There are no more militants inside Marawi City,” he said.
Hundreds of militants, many waving IS-style black flags, launched the siege on May 23 in Marawi, a bastion of Islam in the south of the largely Roman Catholic Philippines, seizing the lakeside city’s central business district and outlying communities.
The fighting has left at least 1,131 people dead, including 919 militants and 165 soldiers and police. At least 1,780 of the hostages seized by the militants, including a Roman Catholic priest, were rescued.