Gunfire disrupts truce in Marawi

MARAWI // Thousands of civilians hoping to flee fighting in the besieged Philippine city of Marawi remained trapped yesterday after a four- hour truce to rescue residents was disrupted by gunfire.

Only 134 people were freed yesterday, fewer than on previous days, despite government hopes that more than 1,000 would be able to leave a city battered by 13 days of fighting.

President Rodrigo Duterte said he would not negotiate with the militants – even if it means they kill the hostages they are holding, including a Catholic priest.

“I was asked if I could negotiate,” Mr Duterte told peace talks advocates in the central city of Lapu- Lapu. “I’m telling you now, you can kill all those you’re holding now, but I won’t talk to you. My order really is to shoot you and to shoot you dead.”

It came a day after he predicted the siege would be over within days despite resistance by the militants.

About 400 local militants reinforced by about 40 foreign fighters stormed Marawi on May 23, using battlefield tactics to seize large swathes of the lakeside city.

They have been pushed back to the city centre over the past week by Philippines forces, with about 4,000 ground troops moving in, bolstered by helicopters and aircraft firing rockets and dropping bombs.

A presidential spokesman said 120 militants and 38 government forces had been killed in clashes. The president has asked the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, a separatist movement based on Mindanao, to help negotiate a peace deal with the militants.

Mr Duterte said yesterday that he had accepted the offer of a second Muslim guerrilla group, the Moro National Liberation Front, which signed a peace deal with Manila in 1996, to send 2,000 fighters to battle the ISIL-linked militants. MILF cadres organised yesterday’s ceasefire, which was to run from 8am until noon. They roamed the streets with loudspeakers urging residents to leave.

But by 9am, gunfire had broken out, apparently deterring residents from joining a mass exodus.