Fears for 2,000 people trapped in city
Residents of Marawi plead to be rescued
MARAWI: Security forces traded heavy gunfire with Islamist militants inside a southern Philippine city yesterday, as fears grew for up to 2,000 people unable to escape a week of fighting that has left women and children among the dead.
President Rodrigo Duterte imposed martial law across the southern third of the Philippines shortly after the fighting erupted, warning the gunmen were involved in an effort by the Islamic State group to set up a local caliphate.
But street-to-street battles and a relentless military bombing campaign has so far failed to end the crisis in Marawi, one of the biggest Muslim cities in the mainly Catholic Philippines, and authorities expressed alarm about the fate of those trapped.
“They are texting us and calling us for help,” Zia Alonto Adiong, spokesman for the provincial crisis management committee, said of the 2,000 people his office had recorded being unable to leave areas held by the militants. “They can’t leave because they are afraid of running into checkpoints put up by the gunmen.”
According to government figures yesterday, the death toll was 105 people — 61 militants, 20 government forces and 24 civilians. Many more were believed to be trapped inside the city.
“I have to rescue my grandfather even at the risk of my life,” Khana-Anuar Marabur Jr said yesterday after police stopped him for speeding through a checkpoint. He said his grandfather had been sending him text messages asking to be saved.
“Get me out of here alive, not dead,” one message said. “This war is taking too long.”
Eight bodies were found on Sunday morning dumped off a bridge on the outskirts of Marawi, which is normally a bustling city of 200,000 people known as a centre of Islamic culture and education.
Myrna Bandung, a Catholic woman, said at a checkpoint yesterday as she accompanied one of those bodies out of the city that she had been with the eight when they were murdered. “They did not kill me because I was able to recite a Muslim prayer. The others were not so lucky,” a visibly shocked Ms Bandung said.
Most of the city’s residents had fled to nearby towns. But adding to the fears for those who remained, the military announced on the weekend that it would intensify a bombing campaign on the areas being held by the militants.
When asked yesterday about fears of civilians being bombed, military spokesman Brig Gen Restituto Padilla told reporters air strikes would be done with precision. However he said the bombings would continue in whichever areas the militants were hiding.
Only small areas of Marawi remain under militants’ control after six days of fighting, he said. In recent days, gunmen have managed to fend off attack helicopters, armoured vehicles and scores of soldiers.
“We can control who comes in and who comes out, who moves around and who doesn’t, and we are trying to isolate these pockets of resistance that have remained,” Brig Gen Padilla said.
Philippine National Police Chief Ronald de la Rosa said the operation is taking time because the gunmen move quickly from building to building to evade capture. “I cannot give operational details, but I am sure they are also human, they will also get tired,” he said.
Meanwhile, there was intense gunfire yesterday afternoon near the main university in Marawi with smoke apparently from a bomb explosion rising in the distance.
The bodies of several civilians were found on the streets on Sunday as soldiers cleared neighbourhoods. In one area, the bodies of eight men who appeared to have been executed by militants were found in a ravine, police said. It was not clear if these were the same eight Ms Bandung saw killed. The bodies of four other men, three women and a child were found near a road close to Mindanao State University in Marawi.
The violence began when dozens of gunmen went on a rampage throughout Marawi in response to an attempt by security forces to arrest Isnilon Hapilon, a veteran Filipino militant regarded as the local leader of IS. The US regards Mr Hapilon as one of the world’s most dangerous terrorists and has offered a bounty of $5 million for his capture.
The gunmen on Tuesday planted black IS flags, took a priest and up to 14 other people hostage from a church, and set fire to buildings. The fate of those hostages remained unknown.
Mr Duterte and military chiefs have said most of the militants belong to the local Maute group, which has declared allegiance to IS. Malaysia, Indonesian, Singaporean and other foreign fighters had joined them, the military said.
Brig Gen Padilla said yesterday some of the more than 100 inmates who had escaped a local jail last week were also suspected to have joined the fighting.