AFP again misses deadline to end fighting in Marawi

Clearing operations brought Marines closer to a mosque used by terrorists as a hiding place in Marawi City as other Marines take cover (top photo) in the ruins of a structure where the IS criminals operated before they were bombed. —PHOTOS BY JEOFFREY MAITEM

Published: 6:07 p.m., Oct. 15, 2017 | Updated: 12:34 a.m., Oct. 16, 2017

MARAWI CITY—Government security forces on Sunday bombed Islamic State (IS)-inspired terrorists who had held out for over four months in Marawi and the military said the battle for the city would be over “very soon.”

The military previously set a deadline of Sunday to end the fighting in Marawi, which had left more than 1,000 people dead.

Troops have missed previous deadlines to flush out the Maute and Abu Sayyaf gunmen who had pledged allegiance to the Middle East-based IS jihadist group.

House-to-house fighting

On Sunday, FA-50 fighter jets flew over Marawi as troops engaged the terrorists in house-to-house combat in an area that had now shrunk to about 2 hectares, said Col. Romeo Brawner Jr., deputy commander of Task Force Ranao.

“We are hoping that we will end this Marawi siege very soon,” Brawner told reporters.

He said troops pushed hard into the battle zone to confront the terrorists, who had “dug themselves in and used basements” to defend their positions.

During heavy fighting on Saturday, more than 20 soldiers were wounded and one died as the Army Scout Rangers assaulted the terrorists’ positions, Brawner said.

Among those injured was a battalion commander whose name Brawner did not disclose.

The terrorists seized parts of Marawi on May 23 to establish an IS enclave in Southeast Asia.

Since then 822 terrorists, 162 soldiers and policemen and 47 civilians have been killed in the fighting for control of the city.

The terrorists have withstood a relentless US-backed bombing campaign and intense ground battles with troops that have left large parts of Marawi resembling devastated cities in war-torn Syria and Iraq.

‘Almost over’

Military commanders last week set a target of Oct. 15 to end the conflict and President Duterte on Friday said that the battle was “almost over.”

Brawner said 40 terrorists remained in the conflict area, including leaders Omarkhayam Maute of the Maute terrorist clan and Isnilon Hapilon of the Abu Sayyaf bandit group, who is on the United States’ list of most wanted terrorists with a $5-million bounty on his head.

There were also 100 civilians in the battle zone, including hostages and families of the terrorists, Brawner added.

“Women and children are now forced to fight together with the Maute fighters. These are desperate measures the Maute are doing. This is their last defensive stand,” he added.

Brawner said troops managed to rescue a child from the battle zone on Saturday.

The 16-year-old girl was the 21st hostage to be rescued by troops this month, he said.

Seventeen hostages, nine of them women, emerged from the battle zone amid government airstrikes on Oct. 4.

Days later, three more captives were intercepted by troops as they fled the conflict zone.

Brawner said the military hoped the civilians who remained in the battle area—16 women and about 11 children—were still alive.

‘Target,’ not ‘deadline’

As Sunday drew to a close, it was clear that the troops in Marawi had missed the ending earlier projected by Lt. Gen. Carlito Galvez, chief of the military’s Western Mindanao Command.

Brawner said, however, that what the troops really had was only a “target,” not a “deadline.”

“It’s difficult if we say it’s a deadline, because it would mean we would try to push our soldiers harder. You know, their lives are also at stake here,” he said.

Quite important, too, is the safety of the hostages, Brawner added.

“The Maute is now using the hostages as human shields and baits to pinpoint the location of our soldiers,” he said.

But Brawner insisted the military was really “closer to liberating the city.”

That was evident in the military clearing most of the villages that had been held by the terrorist and trapping the gunmen in a small pocket of the city, he said.

Mr. Duterte on Thursday warned against celebrating the eventual liberation of Marawi, citing the deaths and devastation there.

“When we leave Marawi, we go quietly. We do not want to show any kind of celebration or happiness,” he said. —With a report from Agence France-Presse