AFP says terrorists cornered as fighting enters fifth week

MARAWI CITY—Islamic State (IS)-linked terrorists holed up here have been cornered and their firepower is flagging, but the military cannot say when the crisis will end.

The battle for Marawi enters its fifth week on Friday, with the 400-500 gunmen from the Maute terrorist group and their allies from the Abu Sayyaf bandit group who seized the city on May 23 just “a little more than 100” now, Lt. Col. Jo-Ar Herrera, spokesperson for the Army’s 1st Infantry Division, told reporters on Thursday.

“Their area has been reduced to 1 square kilometer,” said Lt. Col. Christopher Tampus, commander of the Philippine Army’s 1st Infantry Battalion.

Tampus’ troops were blocking escape routes across bridges spanning a river to the west of the terrorists. “Our forces are coming from the east and the north and we are blocking the three bridges,” he said.

No deadline

But Herrera, in a talk with reporters on Wednesday, could not give a categorical answer to the question when the crisis would end.

“There is no timetable, there is no deadline. What we are doing is [making] sure that the city is safe again by clearing it of the terrorists,” he said.

Herrera insisted that the terrorists’ firepower was flagging, but Tampus on Thursday said his troops were having difficulty moving forward.

He said snipers were still firing from “strategic nests” in schools and mosques, and homemade bombs were hampering the progress of his troops as they advanced house to house.

Tampus said he had seen at least five civilians dressed in black who appeared to have been forced to stand in the street as human shields.

According to official estimates late on Wednesday, more than 360 people have been killed during the month of hostilities—268 terrorists, 66 soldiers and policemen, and 26 civilians.

Four hundred sixty-one soldiers have been wounded in the street-to-street gun battles.

Mautes still alive

In his talk with reporters on Wednesday, Herrera said many terrorists had been wounded in the fighting and that there was no confirmation of reports that the leaders of the Maute group—brothers Omarkhayam and Abdullah Maute—and Abu Sayyaf leader Isnilon Hapilon, who had pledged allegiance to IS, had been killed.

“They are still in the area, based on our monitoring and reports we get,” he said.

More than 300,000 residents have fled Marawi and outlying towns. More than 40,000 jam government-run evacuation centers in Iligan City in Lanao del Norte and the rest sheltering with relatives in the province and surrounding areas.

Civil war unlikely

On Tuesday, President Duterte spoke to reporters in Cagayan de Oro City of the importance of ending the conflict as soon as possible, warning that Christians could arm themselves against Muslims if the fighting spilled over to other parts of Mindanao.

But Gen. Eduardo Año, the military chief of staff, said on Thursday a civil war in Mindanao was unlikely.

Año said a civil war would happen only if the government allowed civilians to arm themselves.

Containing terrorists

He said the military and the Philippine National Police would “do their jobs to end the hostilities as soon as possible” to prevent the rise of communal unrest.

Chief Supt. Dionardo Carlos, spokesperson for the PNP, told reporters orders had gone out to police commanders, particularly in Mindanao, to prevent the fighting in Marawi from spreading to other parts of the island.

“We are conducting checkpoints and intelligence monitoring to prevent the Maute group from moving and carrying out terror acts elsewhere,” Carlos said.

Residents weary

A month after the terrorists seized Marawi to establish an enclave for IS in southern Philippines and the military moved in to dislodge them, residents who stayed in the city and those who fled say they are weary.

“We want to live normal [lives] again,” said Amina Batugan, 62, whose family did not leave Emie Punud village, less than 3 kilometers from the city center, where the fighting is going on.

The village is located on elevated ground and a nearby Army outpost protects it from terrorist attack.

But bomb blasts and the noise of automatic gunfire keep the family on edge.

“How I wish it would end,” Batugan said.

Hadji Kamid Solayman, 48, of Lilod village, said he and his family fled their home and sought refuge in a house owned by another family in Matampay village, which is near the headquarters of the 103rd Infantry Brigade.

“We thought it was safe here,” he said.

Stray bullets

But the place is close to the battle zone and the house is frequently hit by stray bullets.

“We may have avoided getting killed in the crossfire but we might be killed by stray bullets,” Solayman said. “When will this war end?”

Soraida Bato, 45, a mother of four, took her family and fled Lilod, seeking refuge in Matampay.

But like the Solaymans, her family, she said, is “living in fear because of the explosions, the gunfire and the stray bullets.”

She wished the fighting would end so she and her family could go home.

“It doesn’t matter to me if I don’t have a house to return to because we can easily build a new one,” she said. “We’re weary.”