Duterte says siege may end but Daesh scourge here to stay
President to try again this week to travel to Marawi city to be with government troops
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte said yesterday that a disastrous siege by Daesh group-aligned militants of a southern city may end in 10 to 15 days but warned that the threat posed by the brutal group will continue to plague the country.
Duterte said he would try again this week to travel to Marawi city to be with government troops but acknowledged that bad weather and the danger posed by the militants’ deadly firepower have frustrated his travel plans.
Well armed
“I think in 10 to 15 days it’ll already be OK,” Duterte said of the protracted battle with the militants, whose supply of weapons has surprised him.
“But remember the new scourge is [Daesh], it will continue to haunt us,” he said in a speech before business executives.
Duterte said last Friday he would likely extend 60 days of martial law he imposed in the southern Philippines to deal with the Marawi crisis because the situation there remains critical.
Hundreds of gunmen who attacked mosque-studded Marawi, a Centre of Islamic faith in the south of the predominantly Roman Catholic nation, on May 23 are believed to belong to at least four local armed groups that pledged allegiance to Daesh and joined in a loose alliance. Several foreign fighters also joined the insurrection. An unspecified number of gunmen are believed to have slipped out of the city.
After 50 days of ground assaults and air strikes, troops have recaptured most areas of the city, with the death toll recently surpassing 500.
Military spokesman Brig. Gen. Restituto Padilla said 381 militants, 90 soldiers and policemen and 39 civilians have been killed in the fierce streetto-street fighting.
About 300 civilians remain trapped in their homes or are held by the militants, he said.