‘Some Maute fighters ready to give up’

MARAWI CITY — Some Islamic State-linked militants besieging Marawi City have sent “feelers” they are prepared to surrender after three and a half months of fighting, the military said on Monday.

Security forces have used loudspeakers urging militants to give themselves up, telling the estimated 50 to 60 Maute fighters left in the city their lives would be spared if they disarm, change out of their black clothes and walk to a designated location.

“Hopefully, we will have surrenders within the next days,” spokesperson Col. Romeo Brawner told a news conference.

“There are feelers. Definitely, there are feelers,” he added, declining to elaborate.

The surrender offer came after a renewed, if short-lived, effort by President Rodrigo Duterte to start back-channel talks with militants, with former Marawi Mayor Omar Solitario Ali to have acted as an intermediary.

Mr. Duterte on Saturday ruled out the possibility of allowing rebels to flee in exchange for the release of dozens of hostages.

Troops were engaged in running battles with the Maute fighters.

More than 20 structures were captured, many laden with booby traps. Some were commercial high-rise buildings that have been used as sniper positions to thwart government forces.

Brawner described the operations as “a big accomplishment considering the enemy established very strong defensive positions”.

The remaining Maute terrorists are now holed up in the last two remaining barangays they control in Marawi and government troops are fighting them “from room to room,” the military said yesterday.

Brig. Gen. Resituto Padilla said that government troops were trying to dislodge the terrorists from the remaining 300 plus buildings they occupy in the city, which they overran on May 23.

“We’re entering the last and final stages of our fight in Marawi. That is being mentioned because the remaining areas where the rebels are holed up are getting smaller and smaller by the day,” Padilla told a press briefing in Malacañang.

“The fight has been in close quarter combat or close quarter battle. Our clearing is going from room to room in every building,” he added.

Padilla said the rebels initially controlled 96 barangays when they overran the city on May 23 but the military was able to reduce this to just five barangays more than a month ago.

“And now, we’re down to about one-and-a-half barangay. Their area is now around one-fourth of a kilometer grid square,” he said.

“Unfortunately for us, unfortunately for them, in that small area remains among the strongest buildings. The buildings there are the biggest with the thickest [walls]. So, that is now our challenge,” he added.

Padilla said the area under the control of the terrorists had around 320 buildings.

“As we clear more buildings, we deny them the opportunity to retake additional facilities or installations where they can hide. So, they are actually concentrated in only a few,” he said.

Meanwhile, Malacañang yesterday called for unity in the fight against terrorism as the world marked the Sept. 11 terror attacks in New York City.

“The fight against global terrorism continues where nations have chosen to stand united against a common enemy espousing bigotry, fanaticism and anarchy,” said presidential spokesperson Ernesto Abella. —With reports from Philip C. Tubeza and the wires