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BY PRINCE GOLEZ, ADRIAN STEWART CO and AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
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Tuesday, October 24, 2017
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MANILA – The government has ended the five-month battle against Islamic State supporters in Marawi City that claimed more than 1,000 lives.
“We now announce the termination of all combat operations in Marawi,” Defense secretary Delfin Lorenzana told reporters on the sidelines of a regional security meeting in Clark on Monday.
Lorenzana said there were no more militants, known locally as coming from the Maute group, providing resistance following an intense final battle after which 42 bodies were recovered.
“Those are the last group of stragglers of Mautes and they were caught in one building and so there was a firefight so they were finished,” he said.
“All terrorists, fighting troops, all hostages have been recovered,” Lorenzana added.
Presidential Spokesperson Ernesto Abella made a similar announcement on Monday.
“The fighting in Marawi has ended,” Abella said.
“Since the rebellion started 154 days ago, almost a thousand terrorists have been killed, including its leaders Isnilon Hapilon, Omar Maute, Mahmud Ahmad, among others,” he added.
Abella called the war in Marawi “the most serious threat of violent extremism and radicalism in the Philippines.”
Hundreds of gunmen who pledged allegiance to IS rampaged through Marawi, capital of Lanao del Sur province, on May 23, then took over parts of the city using civilians as human shields.
President Rodrigo Duterte and security analysts said the militants were trying to establish a Southeast Asian caliphate in the Islamic capital of the mainly Catholic country.
The ensuing United States-backed military campaign to evict the militants claimed more than 1,000 lives, displaced 400,000 residents and left large parts of Marawi in ruins.
Last Tuesday, Duterte traveled to Marawi and declared the city had been “liberated” a day after Hapilon, the Southeast Asian leader for IS, was shot dead there.
But the continued fighting raised questions over whether the city was indeed free of the militants.
According to Abella, the defeat of the Mautes underscores the global fight against international terrorism.
“With the liberation of Marawi, our focus now shifts to the enormous and challenging task of rebuilding, reconstruction and rehabilitation,” he said.
“Finally, we commend government troops, including the fallen, for their courage, gallantry, and sacrifice,” he added. “A snappy salute to all of you.”
The government’s announcement signals the return of evacuees to their homes, said Zia Alonto Adiong, spokesman for the Lanao del Sur Crisis Management Committee.
“We are looking forward to the end of the fighting,” he said. “We are optimistic that we can fully mobilize all subcommittees to proceed with the efforts for the complete recovery of Marawi.”
US Defense secretary James Mattis on Monday praised the Philippines for its success in Marawi.
“One of the first things I’m going to do when I get there is commend the Philippine military for liberating Marawi from the terrorists,” Mattis told reporters on board a flight to the Philippines to attend the security meeting in Clark.
“It was a very tough fight as you know in southern Mindanao (the local region). And I think the Philippine military sends a very strong message to the terrorists.”
Hapilon, who was on the US government’s list of most-wanted terrorists, was killed along with one of group’s other leaders, Omarkhayam Maute, the military said.
Hapilon and Maute, along with hundreds of other militants, defied near daily bombing raids that left much of the city in ruins by sheltering in basements and traveling through tunnels, said the state forces.
The impoverished southern Philippines, home to many of the nation’s Muslim minority, has for decades endured conflict.
The nation’s biggest Muslim rebel group is in talks with the government to end a rebellion that began in the 1970s and has claimed more than 120,000 lives.
But more extreme groups have emerged with no interest in forging peace.
Some of them, including those led by Hapilon and Maute, had in recent years declared allegiance to IS./PN
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