Beleaguered residents, including women and children, bring whatever they can as they flee Marawi City to escape the fighting between government troops and terrorists who have occupied portions of the city. —AFP
MARAWI CITY — The government said on Friday that Southeast Asian militants were fighting alongside Maute and Abu Sayyaf gunmen in Marawi, stressing that the Islamic State (IS) “invasion” forced President Rodrigo Duterte to declare martial law.
Fighters from Malaysia, Indonesia and Singapore combined forces with their Filipino counterparts in pitched battles in a bid to escape from Marawi, a city of about 200,000 that has been largely abandoned by its predominantly Muslim residents since Tuesday, when violence broke out, officials said.
The Army has deployed attack helicopters and special forces to drive rebels out, and Malaysians and Indonesians and other foreigners were among six guerrillas killed on Thursday.
Mr. Duterte visited troops in Iligan on Friday, and urged the terrorists to give up or face the full wrath of the military.
“My message mainly to the terrorists on the other side is, we can still solve this through dialogue,” he said.
Military spokesperson Brig. Gen. Restituto Padilla said the fighting has so far left 31 terrorists, 11 soldiers and two police officers dead as of Thursday night. At least 30 soldiers have also been wounded, he said.
Solicitor General Jose Calida made the revelation of foreign fighters to defend the President’s order. His announcement elevates the threat of what experts and the military say are moves by IS to exploit the poverty and lawlessness of predominantly Muslim areas in Mindanao to establish a base for extremists from Southeast Asia and beyond.
“What’s happening in Mindanao is no longer a rebellion of Filipino citizens,” Calida told a news conference in Davao City. “It has transmogrified into invasion by foreign terrorists, who heeded the call of the IS to go to the Philippines if they find difficulty in going to Iraq and Syria,” he said, using the acronym for Islamic State.
Mr. Duterte has delivered on his threat to impose martial law on Mindanao, the country’s second-largest island, to stop the spread of radical Islam. He has been pleading with Mindanao governors and religious leaders to work with the government to keep extremists at bay.
He recently warned that IS fighters driven from Iraq and Syria would end up in the southern Philippines and his country was at risk of “contamination.”
The Maute group, which has pledged allegiance to IS, held its positions on bridges and buildings on Friday as ground troops launched early morning offensives to flush out the remaining gunmen after days of unrest.
Only a few of Marawi’s inhabitants remained after militants ran amok, seizing and torching schools, a college and a hospital. They freed more than 100 prisoners and took a Catholic priest and churchgoers hostage at the city’s cathedral.
Not real Muslims
Convoys of vehicles packed with evacuees and protected by heavily armed soldiers streamed into nearby Iligan City. One Christian resident, Mark Angelou Siega, described how students fled amid fears rebels would take over their university campus.
“We were preparing for exams and we could hear the gunfire and bombs,” he said. “We were so scared and so were our Muslim brothers and sisters. We were sure they would get to us.
“These terrorists are not real Muslims.”
Calida said the Maute group and IS had a dream to create their own “Isis province” in Mindanao and the government was not the only target of their aggression.
“People they consider as infidels, whether Christians or Muslims, are also targets,” he said. “What is worrisome is that IS has radicalized a number of Filipino Muslim youth.”
Mr. Duterte has dealt with separatist unrest during his 22 years as mayor of Davao, Mindanao’s biggest city, but the rise of the Maute group and signs that it has ties to another network, the Abu Sayyaf, present one of the biggest challenges of a presidency won on promises to restore law and order.
Philippine intelligence indicates the two groups from different parts of Mindanao are connected, through Isnilon Hapilon, a leader of a radical faction of the Abu Sayyaf.
He was the target of Tuesday’s failed raid by troops on Maute hideout in Marawi and Calida said IS had declared Hapilon its “emir” in the Philippines.
The Abu Sayyaf is notorious for piracy and kidnappings and beheading captives, among them Westerners. Though less known, the Maute group has proven itself a fierce battlefield opponent for the military with its ability to sustain days of air and artillery bombardments and regroup after incurring heavy losses.
Mr. Duterte started warning of a spread of radicalism last year after a bombing in Davao City in September killed 15 people and wounded dozens. The Maute group was also blamed for a failed bombing near the US Embassy in Manila in November.
In a sign of the confusion over events inside the city, a local police chief told The Associated Press on Friday that he was alive and well—two days after the President told the media he had been beheaded by militants.
Police chief Romeo Enriquez said there may have been confusion because his predecessor in Malabang, a town near Marawi, was killed in the fighting on Tuesday, although he was not beheaded.
As authorities worked to clear the city, residents spoke of their terror.
“At night we can hear the gunfire,” said Mohammad Usman, who watched from his home just outside Marawi as thousands of residents streamed out of the city on Thursday. “I’m just praying that the bullets will not find their way to my house and hit us. I hope that the bombs will not land nearby and harm us.”
Islamic firebrand
Mr. Duterte imposed 60 days of martial law on Tuesday on Mindanao, a traditional homeland of minority Muslims that encompasses the southern third of the nation and is home to 22 million people.
Mr. Duterte warned he may expand martial law nationwide, an unnerving development for many in the Philippines who lived through the rule of the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos. Marcos declared martial law in 1972 and used it to maintain his grip on power for more than a decade.
Hapilon, an Arabic-speaking Islamic preacher known for his expertise in commando assaults, is at the nexus of several militant groups that are trying to merge into a more powerful force.
Hapilon, an Abu Sayyaf commander, had pledged allegiance to IS in 2014. He also heads an alliance that includes at least 10 smaller militant groups, including the Maute, which have a heavy presence in Marawi and were instrumental in fighting off government forces in this week’s battles.
All these groups are inspired by IS, but so far there is no sign of significant, material ties.
“We have not seen any concrete evidence of material support from IS,” military spokesperson Padilla earlier said. But he added that the smaller groups “are working to really get that recognition and funds, of course.”
Washington has offered a $5-million reward for information leading to Hapilon’s capture, but he has proved elusive. The Philippines launched an airstrike that wounded him in January, but he got away.
The Army raided what it believed to be his hideout on Tuesday in Marawi, but the operation quickly went wrong. Militants called in reinforcements and were able to overpower government forces. Once again, Hapilon escaped. The military said it believed Hapilon was still in Marawi.
Much of Marawi was still a no-go zone. Automatic gunfire and explosions could be heard clearly and plumes of black smoke rose from the direction of the city center. Air Force helicopters swooped overhead.
As authorities tried to gain more control over the city, disturbing details have emerged.
Militants forced their way into the Marawi Cathedral and seized a priest, 10 worshippers and three church workers, according to the city’s bishop, Edwin dela Peña. The black flags of IS were planted atop buildings and flown from commandeered vehicles, including a government ambulance and an armored car, said Mamintal Alonto Adiong Jr., vice governor of Lanao del Sur province, of which Marawi is the capital. —WITH REPORTS FROM JULIE ALIPALA, FRINSTON LIM, AP AND REUTERS