Tag Archives: Marawi City

As battle rages, devastated Philippine city starts its long cleanup

As battle rages, devastated Philippine city starts its long cleanup

MARAWI CITY, Philippines (Reuters) – War might still be raging in the ruins of the Philippine city of Marawi, but the cleanup has already began.

Under the guard of dozens of police and soldiers, about 100 of the 200,000 residents driven from their homes during 150 days of fighting have returned to start what will be a massive operation to clear the city of the debris of war.

Army trucks crawled through the deserted streets to take displaced people to safe areas of Marawi, where echoes of gunfire and explosions could still be heard as troops sought to finish off the remaining Maute group militants hemmed into a shrinking battle zone.

They swept away trash, rocks and belongings scattered on streets, among them toys of children who fled when the pro-Islamic State rebels ran amok on May 23, setting buildings ablaze and ransacking churches and schools.

Spray painted on the shutter of one abandoned building reads “Maute ISIS”, a term used for the militant alliance.

“This is very important for the normalization of Marawi because we are responding to the call for them to return back, so we need to prepare,” said Lieutenant Colonel Rosendo Abad of a joint task force.

Defense officials say it could take until January before rebuilding can start, with the heart of the city littered with unexploded bombs and booby traps and buildings on the brink of collapse after months of government air strikes.

Military operations have cost 5 billion pesos ($97 million) and the government estimates it could be 10 times that much to rebuild Marawi.

The government on Tuesday said 20-year “patriotic bonds” would be sold to generate 30 billion pesos.

Australia, the United States, Singapore, Russia, the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank are among the countries and organizations that have offered to help.

But already close to the front lines of the effort is China, which has donated 47 heavy-duty industrial vehicles, among them excavators, bulldozers, tractors, cement mixers and dump trucks.

Those vehicles are on standby at the port in nearby Iligan City, waiting for the guns to finally go silent before starting the task of restoring the country’s only designated Islamic City.

Omarshariff Yassin, an engineer in charge of equipment at the Department of Public Works and Highways, said there was enough skilled manpower, but a lack of machinery.

“Before the Chinese equipment arrived, we have 15 equipment in use. We have 17 units on standby,” he said.

“The more, the better. What’s happening is we lack equipment so we borrow from other regions. But we really need more.”

(Reporting by Neil Jerome Morales; Writing by Martin Petty; Editing by Robert Birsel)

Philippine president declares Marawi liberated as battle goes on

FILE PHOTO: Government soldiers stand guard in front of damaged building and houses in Sultan Omar Dianalan boulevard at Mapandi district in Marawi city, southern Philippines September 13, 2017. REUTERS/Romeo Ranoco

By Neil Jerome Morales and Manolo Serapio Jr

MANILA (Reuters) – Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte declared the southern city of Marawi liberated from pro-Islamic State militants on Tuesday, although the military said 20-30 rebels were holding about 20 hostages and still fighting it out.

In a rousing address to soldiers a day after the killing of two commanders of the rebel alliance, Duterte said he would never again allow militants to stockpile so many weapons, but Marawi was now free and it was time to heal wounds and rebuild.

“I hereby declare Marawi City liberated from terrorist influence, that marks the beginning of rehabilitation,” Duterte, wearing a camouflage cap and dark sunglasses, said during his unannounced visit.

Isnilon Hapilon, who was wanted by the United States and was Islamic State’s Southeast Asian “emir”, and Omarkhayam Maute, one of two brothers central to the alliance, were killed in a targeted operation on Monday. Their bodies were recovered and identified, authorities said.

The 148-day occupation marked the Roman Catholic-majority Philippines’ biggest security crisis in years and triggered concerns that with its mountains, jungles and porous borders, the island of Mindanao could become a magnet for Islamic State fighters driven out of Iraq and Syria.

More than 1,000 people, mostly rebels, were killed in the battle and the heart of the city of 200,000 has been leveled by air strikes.

Duterte said the liberation was not a cause for celebration and later apologized to the people of Marawi for the destruction.

“We had to do it,” he said. “There was no alternative.”

Armed forces chief Eduardo Ano said the remaining gunmen were now a “law enforcement matter”, while military spokesman Restituto Padilla described them as “stragglers”.

“There is no way that they can get out anymore, there is no way for anyone to get in,” Padilla told news channel ANC.

NOT A FIGHTER, NOT A PROBLEM

Padilla said the military believed Malaysian operative Mahmud Ahmad was in Marawi, but it could not be certain. He said Mahmud was no threat.

“Dr. Mahmud is an academic, he’s not a fighter,” Padilla said. “We don’t feel he is a problem.”

But some security experts say otherwise and believe Mahmud, 39, a recruiter and fundraiser who trained at an al Qaeda camp in Afghanistan, could replace Hapilon as Islamic State’s point-man in Southeast Asia.

Another leader, Abdullah Maute, has yet to be accounted for. Intelligence indicated he died in an August air strike, though no body was found.

Defence officials say the core leadership was key to recruiting young fighters and arranging for extremists from Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and beyond to join the push to carve out an East Asian “Wilaya”, or Islamic State province.

Hapilon had teamed up with the moneyed Maute clan in their stronghold of Lanao del Sur, one of the Philippines’ poorest provinces, and brought with him fighters from his radical faction of Abu Sayyaf, a group better known for banditry.

Defence Secretary Delfin Lorenzana, who estimated Marawi operations to have cost 5 billion pesos ($97.5 million), said reconstruction could start in January.

“There are still stragglers and the structures are still unsafe because of unexploded ordnance and improvised explosive devices,” he said on radio.

The Marawi occupation set alarm bells ringing in the Philippines, with militants surprising security forces with their combat prowess, the volume of arms and ammunition they stockpiled and their ability to withstand intensive air strikes aided by U.S. surveillance drones and technical support.

($1 = 51 pesos)

(Additional reporting by Manuel Mogato; Writing by Martin Petty; Editing by Nick Macfie)

Malaysian teacher seen as new ’emir’ of pro-Islamic State militants

Soldiers distribute pictures of a member of extremist group Abu Sayyaf Isnilon Hapilon, who has a U.S. government bounty of $5 million for his capture, in Butig, Lanao del Sur in southern Philippines February 1, 2017.

By Rozanna Latiff and Joseph Sipalan

KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) – The battlefield deaths of two leaders of an Islamic State alliance in the southern Philippines could thrust a Malaysian who trained at an Al-Qaeda camp in Afghanistan as the militant group’s new regional “emir”, experts and officials say.

Intelligence officials describe Malaysian Mahmud Ahmad as a financier and recruiter, who helped put together the coalition of pro-Islamic State (IS) fighters that stormed Marawi City in May.

Isnilon Hapilon, Islamic State’s anointed “emir” in Southeast Asia, and Omarkhayam Maute, one of two Middle East-educated brothers at the helm of the militant alliance, were killed in a raid on a building in Marawi and their bodies recovered on Monday, Philippine Defence Secretary Delfin Lorenzana said.

Philippine authorities said they were still searching for Mahmud.

“Based on our information, there is still one personality, Dr. Mahmud of Malaysia, and he is still in the main battle area with some Indonesians and Malaysians,” military chief, Gen. Eduardo Ano, said on Monday. “But their attitude is now different, they are no longer as aggressive as before.” He did not elaborate.

Ano urged the 30 militants remaining in a shrinking combat zone to surrender and free hostages as troops stepped up their fight.

Abdullah Maute, the alliance’s military commander, was reported killed in August, though no body was found.

Intelligence officials in Malaysia believe Mahmud left Marawi months ago.

Malaysia’s police counter-terrorism chief Ayob Khan Mydin Pitchay told Reuters in July that Mahmud “managed to sneak out from Marawi city to another safe place with his followers”.

The 39-year-old Mahmud, who holds a doctorate in religious studies and was a university lecturer in Kuala Lumpur, was Hapilon’s second-in-command in the IS’s Southeast Asia “caliphate”, according to a July report by Indonesia-based Institute of Policy Analysis and Conflict (IPAC).

 

RECRUITMENT AND FINANCING

Sitting in the inner circle of the Marawi command center, Mahmud controlled recruitment and financing, the IPAC report said.

He was the contact for foreigners wanting to join the fight in the Philippines or with IS in the Middle East, it said.

“It wasn’t just Indonesians and Malaysians contacting Dr. Mahmud … he was also the contact for Bangladeshis in Malaysia who wanted to join the fighting in Mindanao,” IPAC’s director Sidney Jones told Reuters.

Rohan Gunaratna, an analyst at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore, described Mahmud as

“the most important IS leader in Southeast Asia”.

Ahmad El-Muhammady, a lecturer at the International Islamic University of Malaysia (IIUM) and a counter-terrorism advisor to the police, said Mahmud often solicited funds for IS operations.

“He’s always the one asking people “does anyone have any money they’d like to donate?”, and he will usually reply when followers in the region ask him about the situation in the Philippines,” Ahmad said.

 

Men identified by Philippines Intelligence officers as Isnilon Hapilon (2nd L, yellow headscarf) and Abdullah Maute (2nd R, standing, long hair) are seen in this still image taken from video released by the Armed Forces of the Philippines on June 7, 2017.

FILE PHOTO: Men identified by Philippines Intelligence officers as Isnilon Hapilon (2nd L, yellow headscarf) and Abdullah Maute (2nd R, standing, long hair) are seen in this still image taken from video released by the Armed Forces of the Philippines on June 7, 2017. Armed Forces of the Philippines/Handout via REUTERS TV/File Photo

 

‘JUST DISAPPEARED’

Mahmud grew up in Batu Caves, a crowded Kuala Lumpur suburb, famous for a Hindu temple housed in a large complex of caverns.  Mahmud’s wife and three children were last known to be living there, although Reuters could not locate them.

Before leaving Malaysia in 2014, Mahmud taught young Muslim students at a tahfiz, a school to memorise the Koran, in Nakhoda, a village near Batu Caves, residents said.

“When he (Mahmud) started the school, he did stay there for the first one or two years, but then he just disappeared,” said 50-year-old Zainon Mat Arshad, a Nakhoda resident who went to the mosque where Mahmud prayed.

“When he was at the tahfiz school, he kept mostly to himself and if he had come over to pray on Friday, I don’t think anyone would have recognized him,” said Zainon. “He didn’t mingle with the local community.”

Security experts say Mahmud studied at Pakistan’s Islamabad Islamic University in the late 1990s before going to Afghanistan where he learned to make improvised explosive devices at an al Qaeda camp.

In 2000, he returned to Malaysia to get a doctorate, which earned him a post as a lecturer in the Islamic Studies faculty at the University of Malaysia in Kuala Lumpur.

Former students described Mahmud as a quiet person who kept to himself.

“He wasn’t the kind of lecturer who hung out at cafes with his students as some others did,” said one former student, who declined to be identified.

 

WROTE JIHAD BOOK

The few signs of his militant beliefs were discovered later, including a book he wrote on jihad under his nom de guerre, Abu Handzalah, said Ahmad, the IIUM lecturer.

He was put on Malaysia’s most-wanted list in April 2014 after leaving the country with several others, including his aide, a Malaysian bomb maker named Mohammad Najib Husen, to work with the Abu Sayyaf group, notorious for violent kidnappings and beheadings in the southern Philippines, Ahmad said.

Mahmud received funding for the Marawi operation directly from IS headquarters, through the group’s Southeast Asian unit led by Syrian-based Indonesian militant Bahrumsyah, the IPAC report said.

In a video released by the Philippines army in June, Mahmud is seen alongside Hapilon as well as Omarkhayam and Abdullah Maute – the pair of brothers who orchestrated the Marawi siege.

 

 

(Editing by Praveen Menon and Bill Tarrant)

 

One week to cross a street: how IS pinned down Filipino soldiers in Marawi

One week to cross a street: how IS pinned down Filipino soldiers in Marawi

By Tom Allard

MARAWI CITY, Philippines (Reuters) – With a grimace, Brigadier General Melquiades Ordiales of the Philippines 1st Marine Brigade recounted the painful gains made against Islamist militants in Marawi City.

“It took us one week from this point to that point, to cross that street,” he said, casting his eyes to the other side of a two-lane road in the heart of the southern Philippines city, lined by three-storey buildings shattered by air strikes and the remaining walls riddled with bullet holes.

“It was really very, very tough.”

The grinding urban warfare that has destroyed much of the grandly named Sultan Omar Dianalan Boulevard shows just how much of a threat Islamic State is to the Philippines and potentially other countries in the Southeast Asian region.

But when the fighting started, Philippine authorities were unfazed.

After the Islamic State-backed militants took over large parts of picturesque, lakeside Marawi in May, the country’s defense minister, Delfin Lorenzana, predicted the entire conflict would be over in one week.

Now, after four months of intense aerial bombardment and house-by-house battles, Philippine commanders believe they are in the final stages of the operation to oust the rebels from the city.

In the past two weeks, military officials say they have conquered three militant bastions, including a mosque, and restricted about 60 remaining guerrillas to about 10 devastated city blocks in the business district. Patrols have been increased on the lake to prevent the supply of armaments and recruits to the holed-up militants.

HIGH-POWERED WEAPONS

Military officers who have skirmished for years with Islamic insurgents in the southern Philippines say the battle in Marawi has been more intense and difficult than earlier encounters.

The Islamic State militants are better armed, with high-powered weapons, night vision goggles, the latest sniper scopes and surveillance drones, said Captain Arnel Carandang, of the Philippines Army First Scout Ranger Battalion.

He said he has served for almost a decade in the remote jungles and mountains of Mindanao, the southern Philippines region that has long been wracked by insurgencies. Now, Carandang says, the military is in unfamiliar urban terrain.

The militants have exploited the battlefield to their advantage and held off Philippines forces despite a 10-to-1 numerical advantage for the government troops.

Borrowing heavily from Islamic State tactics in the Iraqi city of Mosul, they have surrounded themselves with hostages and used snipers and a network of tunnels.

Marawi’s underground drainage system and “rat holes” – crevices in the walls of high floors allowing access to adjacent buildings – have enabled the rebels to evade bombs and remain undetected, soldiers at the battlefront said.

“We believe there have been some foreign terrorists that have been directing their operations that’s why they are, how do I define this, really good,” said Carandang.

“We have seen some cadavers of foreigners. Some are white, some are black and some tall people we guess are Asians (from outside the Philippines). We have been hearing in their transmissions some English speaking terrorists.”

SCAVENGE FOR FOOD

Hostages – many of them Christians – have been deployed to build improvised explosive devices, scavenge for food and weapons in the heat of battle and fight for the Islamist rebels, according to those who escaped.

“When we were first moved to the mosque, there were more than 200 of us,” an escaped hostage, who asked not to be identified for safety reasons, told Reuters last week.

“We gradually became fewer. People would go on errands but they wouldn’t come back. They either escaped or died. By the time I left, there were only about 100 of us.”

The account could not be verified, but military officials confirmed the man escaped from Marawi in early August.

The hostage said the militants were excited by their successes in Marawi, speaking often of the advantages of urban warfare and talking about some of their next possible targets, including other cities in Mindanao and the Philippines capital Manila.

“They said they could hide well in the cities. They can get civilians to become hostages and it’s more difficult in the mountains with only the soldiers,” he said.

Many of the fighters are young recruits, who are fanatical and accomplished fighters, the soldiers said.

“By the way they move and their tactics, you can see they’ve been trained,” said Colonel Jose Maria Cuerpo, deputy commander of the 103rd Brigade fighting in Marawi.

For a description of how Mindanao youngsters are recruited by militants, click on [nL3N1KB1Z5]

PROPOSAL REBUFFED

Much of this bloodshed could have been avoided, local political leaders told Reuters.

Naguib Sinarimbo, a Muslim leader who has negotiated between the military and Islamic separatists for years, said he and other elders had urged the armed forces to allow militias and rival Islamist groups to take the lead in ousting the Islamic State militants.

The groups were familiar with Marawi’s terrain and, through family and clan links, could influence many of the fighters to lay down their weapons, they told the armed forces.

The proposal was rebuffed, Sinarimbo said. Air power, the military assured them, was the path to a quick win.

Zia Alonto Adiong, a provincial politician, said the military also had doubts about the loyalty of some of the “political personalities” offering to provide their militias to push out the fighters.

The result was a city in ruins, hundreds of thousands of residents displaced and “emboldened” Islamists, Sinarimbo said.

“They proceeded with the aerial bombing but they didn’t take the city,” Sinarimbo said. “The military lost authority.”

In addition, the devastation of the city will play into militants’ hands, creating resentment and further radicalising many youngsters, he said.

Marawi residents in evacuation centers or staying with relatives elsewhere are becoming increasingly frustrated, said Adiong, who is a spokesman for the local government’s crisis management authority. Some residents were disappointed and angry that requests for a moratorium on bank loan repayments had not been met, he told Reuters.

Philippines central bank governor Nestor Espenilla told Reuters legislation would be needed for a debt moratorium and was being studied.

Mindanao has long been marred by the decades of Muslim hostility to rule from Manila. After years fighting insurgent groups and then long negotiations, the government signed an agreement in 2014 to give Muslim majority areas in Mindanao autonomy. But the deal has been long delayed.

“This part of the Philippines is fertile ground to plant violent extremism,” Adiong said. “There is a narrative of social injustice that is strong. Young people are fed up with the peace process and nothing concrete or sustainable has developed.”

“[The militants] use this as the basis to entice people, to get support of the local people.”

LAST STAND?

In Marawi, some in the armed forces are hopeful that at least some militants will surrender and hand over between 45 to 50 civilian captives. Carandang, the Scout Rangers captain, however said indications were the rebels are preparing for a bloody final stand.

“We are monitoring the enemy’s transmissions and it’s like during these final days they are being more fanatical,” he said. “Transmissions indicate they are preparing for suicide bombings.”

An unused suicide vest was discovered this month in Marawi’s Grand Mosque, a former stronghold of the militants, government sources told Reuters.

Suicide attacks are rare in the Philippines despite decades of Islamist insurgency.

“That’s the difference between here and Syria and Iraq,” said Ordiales, the marine general. “It’s almost the same war tactics and fighting tactics, the one thing that’s not the same is the human bomb or the suicide bombing.

“It hasn’t happened, not yet.”

(Additional reporting by Martin Petty in Marawi City and Karen Lema in Manila; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan)

Philippine troops in tough push in Marawi; three dead, 52 hurt

Philippine troops in tough push in Marawi; three dead, 52 hurt

MANILA (Reuters) – Philippine troops have fought one of their toughest clashes against militants loyal to Islamic State in a southern town, and three soldiers were killed and 52 wounded, many by rebel bombs as they pushed forward, an officer said on Friday.

The Islamists shocked the country by seizing large parts of Marawi town in May. After more than 100 days of fighting, pockets of fighters remain dug in in the ruins.

The army made its push on Thursday, the eve of the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha, and seized a bridge in what military spokesman Brigadier General Restituto Padilla described as some of the toughest fighting yet.

At least five militants were killed, he said.

“We are working to clear the remaining areas where the enemy is holding out,” Padilla said in a statement.

“Following a short pause early today, to give due respect to the solemnity and significance of this day, the operations will continue without any let up,” he said, referring to the Muslim holiday.

The military has expressed confidence the end is in sight for what has been its biggest security crisis in years, which started in May, but the latest casualties underscore the difficulty that they still face in the battlefield.

In all, 620 militants, 45 civilians and 136 soldiers and policemen have been killed in the fighting that has displaced hundreds of thousands of people and raised fears about Islamic State establishing a foothold in Southeast Asia.

The military has missed repeated targets and deadlines to crush the rebels in Marawi, a largely Muslim town on the southern island of Mindanao, raising questions about whether it can contain a wider rebellion.

President Rodrigo Duterte, who placed all of Mindanao under martial law until the end of the year after the militants occupied Marawi, has urged lawmakers to approve funds to beef up the army by 20,000 troops.

On Friday, Duterte said he saw no reason to lift martial law in Mindanao, citing violence in other parts of the island.

“The way it looks, there seems to be some spillover,” he said, without elaborating.

Muslim rebels in the south of the predominately Christian Philippines have for generations battled for greater autonomy but in recent years hopes for peace were raised with several factions engaged in talks.

But the Marawi fighting has dimmed those hopes.

For an interactive on battle for Marawi, click: http://fingfx.thomsonreuters.com/gfx/rngs/PHILIPPINES-ATTACK/010041F032X/index.html

(Reporting by Enrico dela Cruz; Additional reporting by Manuel Mogato; Editing by Robert Birsel)

After 100 days, Philippine army says ‘last stand’ near for Marawi fighters

Government troops walks past damaged buildings and houses after 100 days of intense fighting between soldiers and insurgents from the Maute group, who have taken over parts of Marawi city, southern Philippines August 30, 2017. REUTERS/Froilan Gallardo

By Neil Jerome Morales

MANILA (Reuters) – One hundred days after militants loyal to Islamic State took over parts of a southern Philippine city, the military is confident the end is in sight for what has been its biggest security crisis in years.

After a lightning strike on May 23 on Marawi City, the Dawla Islamiya rebel alliance has held out against daily artillery bombardment and air strikes by jets and bombers, and its snipers remain placed in the rubble of the city’s business district.

But now, says Romeo Brawner, deputy commander of the military’s Marawi task force, rebel-held areas are shrinking, and there are signs the fighters are low on food and ammunition, and starting to flag.

“Hopefully, the Marawi siege is going to be over within the next few weeks,” he told reporters.

“Their strength continues to decline. We are inflicting casualties on them almost every day.”

The military has, however, missed repeated targets and deadlines to crush the rebels, whose strength and resolve it accepts it has under-estimated. The conflict in the southern region of Mindano has displaced hundreds of thousands of people and killed nearly 800 by government count – 133 soldiers and police, 45 civilians and an estimated 617 militants.

Residents say they fear the bodies of many more civilians could be in the rubble of the lakeside city. Estimates of civilians trapped in the fighting at one point were over 2,000, although authorities say 1,728 have been rescued.

The Red Cross says it is investigating the whereabouts of 179 missing people.

The protracted occupation has heightened concerns that Islamic State’s radical ideology may have gained a deeper foothold in the southern Philippines than was previously imagined, and raised questions about whether the military can contain a wider rebellion.

The presence of foreigners among the fighters is fanning fears that Mindanao could become a draw for extremists from Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore, and those being pushed out of Syria and Iraq.

Armed forces chief Eduardo Ano said strategic gains had been made against the Islamist militants in the past week, including retaking the police headquarters and the city’s central mosque.

All routes in and out of Marawi had been sealed off, he said on Tuesday, and the hard core of about 50 rebels were preparing for their “last stand” and would have to decide whether to surrender, or be martyred.

NO WAY OUT

“That’s our main goal: No way out, no way in,” Ano said.

“If they want to go to heaven as they declared, we will give them the chance.”

The Marawi fighting has been the biggest security crisis of the presidency of Rodrigo Duterte, who declared martial law in Mindanao until the end of the year, and has urged lawmakers to approve funds to beef up the army by 20,000 troops.

On Wednesday, he said the conflict was by no means “the beginning and the end” of an extremism problem that stemmed from decades of separatist unrest.

Experts say the ability of two hardline groups from different parts of Mindanao – the relatively new Maute group, and the more established Abu Sayyaf – to carefully plan each step of the takeover of a city illustrates the ease in which extremists could organize and rally around Islamic State’s agenda.

The military says key to countering that will be whether it can kill or capture the main leaders, who it believes are still inside a conflict zone of about half a square kilometer (0.2 sq miles) in size.

One challenge will be securing what are believed to be dozens of hostages. Failure to do that could be a disaster for a military already criticized for the massive destruction caused by air strikes that have had mixed results. In two instances, the bombs have hit ground troops.

Duterte said the reason why the battle had gone on so long was because of the government’s desire to keep hostages safe and to avoid bombing a mosque where rebel leaders were believed to be taking shelter.

“It would have just created more animosity and outright hostility against the government,” he said.

Rodolfo Biazon, a former lawmaker and military chief, said that after Marawi is retaken, the government should seek more than a military solution and try to stop rebels from regrouping, by targeting recruitment and tackling radical ideology at the grassroots level.

“Remove the community support, and it will not last long. This should be the primary effort,” Biazon said.

“All Islamic radical groups should be targeted not physically alone, but psychologically by removing the water from the fish.”

(Writing by Martin Petty; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan)

Marawi standoff enters third month, underlining crisis in Philippines

FILE PHOTO: An explosion is seen after a Philippines army aircraft released a bomb during an airstrike as government troops continue their assault against insurgents from the Maute group in Marawi city June 27, 2017. REUTERS/Jorge Silva/File Photo

By Martin Petty

MANILA (Reuters) – Two months after Islamist militants launched an assault on one of the biggest southern cities in the Philippines, the fighting is dragging on, and President Rodrigo Duterte says he is prepared to wait for a year for it to end.

The defense top brass admits it underestimated its enemy and is struggling to finish off the highly organized, pro-Islamic State fighters who swept through Marawi City on May 23 and have held parts of it despite sustained ground attacks by hundreds of soldiers and daily pummeling by planes and artillery.

On Saturday, lawmakers approved Duterte’s request to extend martial law to the end of the year on the island of Mindanao, granting greater powers to security forces to go after extremists with a reach that goes far beyond Marawi.

But it remains unclear how exactly Duterte plans to tackle extremism after troops retake Marawi, where about 70 militants remain holed up in the debris of what was once a flourishing commercial district, along with many civilian hostages.

More than 500 people have been killed, including 45 civilians and 105 government troops. After missing several self-imposed deadlines to re-take the city, the military says its options are limited because of the hostages.

Duterte has said he had asked to military to avoid more civilian casualties.

“I told them ‘do not attack’. What’s important is we do not want to kill people,” he said on Friday. “If we have to wait there for one year, let us wait for one year.”

The southern Philippines has been marred for decades by insurgency and banditry. But the intensity of the battle in Marawi and the presence of foreign fighters fighting alongside local militants has raised concerns that the region may be becoming a Southeast Asian hub for Islamic State as it loses ground in Iraq and Syria.

Militants from neighbouring Malaysia and Indonesia, both Muslim-majority nations, are fighting in Marawi.

About 5 million Muslims live in the Catholic-majority Philippines, mostly on Mindanao. Defence Secretary Delfin Lorenzana indicated on Saturday that after Marawi, the government would strengthen surveillance in the region, widening the net to detect rebel training camps and movements of militants.

“We need communications equipment, high-tech communications equipment that we can use to monitor cellphones of the enemies. We also need drones,” he told Congress.

OVERHAUL

Security experts say the government needs a strategic overhaul after failing to act on warnings long ago that radical ideology was taking hold in Mindanao, and luring foreign fighters unable to join Islamic State in Syria and Iraq.

“Things have changed dramatically … our country must pursue some paradigm shifts,” said analyst and retired police intelligence officer Rodolfo Mendoza.

“We have to counter the spread of terrorism not only by supporting use of intelligence or counter intelligence, but tackling the root causes.”

The Marawi assault was planned and executed by a relatively new group, Dawla Islamiya, better known as the Maute Group, which wants recognition from Islamic State as its regional affiliate.

Led by two brothers, the Maute Group want a “Wilayah”, or province of Islamic State, in Lanao del Sur province, where it has engaged in fierce, days-long battles with the military since 2016, each time suffering heavy losses before regrouping months later.

The brothers, Abdullah and Omarkhayam Maute, have been joined by Isnilon Hapilon, the anointed Southeast Asian “Emir” of Islamic State and leader of a faction of another Mindanao group, Abu Sayyaf.

The Marawi fighting has been much publicized across militant networks and experts say it could attract more fighters to the region.

“It has inspired young extremists from around the region to want to join,” the Institute for Policy Analysis of Conflict said in a report on Friday, adding the fighting had “lifted the prestige of the Philippine fighters in the eyes of ISIS Central”.

Richard Javad Heydarian, a political science professor at Manila’s De La Salle University, said the military is seeking to neutralize the Maute brothers to buy time to disrupt recruitment and stop fighters regrouping.

Moderate separatist groups from Mindanao should be co-opted to counter the extremist message, he said, while the military should work closer with the United States and Australia, which have provided operational advice and surveillance planes.

The Marawi crisis erupted not because of intelligence failures, but the policy priorities of Duterte, Heydarian added.

He said Duterte, who came to power a year ago, channeled security resources into a war on drugs instead of countering Islamic radicalization in the south, an issue the president himself has himself flagged in the past.

“They were all aware of this. It was just a matter of time,” Heydarian said.

(This version of the story was refiled to remove the extraneous word “should” in paragraph 21)

(Edited by Raju Gopalakrishnan)

Philippine Congress agrees to extend Mindanao martial law to end of year

An anti martial law protestor hold a placard while protesting during the special session on the extension of martial law at the House of Representatives in Quezon City, metro Manila, Philippines July 22, 2017. REUTERS/Dondi Tawatao

By Enrico Dela Cruz

MANILA (Reuters) – Philippine lawmakers on Saturday voted to retain martial law on the southern island of Mindanao until the end of the year, giving President Rodrigo Duterte more time to tackle armed extremists allied with the Islamic State group.

Some 261 legislators agreed to extend military rule in a seven hour-long joint special session of the House of Representatives and the Senate, more than the required two-thirds of the house.

Security officials had told lawmakers that martial law was needed to stabilize a region where Islamic State was gaining influence, and supporters could be inspired to stage uprisings in other areas of Mindanao, joined by foreign jihadists.

Defence Secretary Delfin Lorenzana warned of more serious problems if the government did not have the powers to act swiftly.

“We need martial law because we haven’t addressed yet the existence of other Daesh-inspired groups,” he said, referring to another name for Islamic State.

Duterte placed Mindanao under martial law on May 23 when heavily-armed militants belonging to the Maute and Abu Sayyaf groups along with foreign fighters stormed Marawi City, sparking the biggest security crisis of his presidency.

The battle to liberate Marawi continues two months after, with more than 420 militants, 100 soldiers and 45 civilians killed. Some of those were executed by the rebels, according to the military.

Government troops pulverized and retook some of the Maute strongholds after weeks of artillery attacks and airstrikes, but an estimated 70 militants remained holed up in the downtown area.

“The rebellion in Marawi continues to persist and we want to stop the spread of the evil ideology of terrorism and free the people of Mindanao from the tyranny of lawlessness and violent extremism,” Presidential Spokesman Ernesto Abella said in a statement.

But martial law remains a sensitive issue in the Philippines as it brings back memories of human rights abuses that occurred in the 1970s under the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos.

He was ousted in a “people power” revolt in 1986. Saturday’s vote paves the way for the first ever extension of a period of martial law since the Marcos era.

Opponents expressed fears Duterte might eventually place the entire country under martial law, but the authorities have dismissed that.

Senator Franklin Drilon said the extension until end of the year was too long and Senator Risa Hontiveros, a staunch critic of Duterte, said martial law has “no strategic contribution to the military’s anti-terrorism operations”.

Congressman Edcel Lagman said there was “no factual basis” for martial law and that the siege in Marawi was terrorism, not rebellion.

Rebellion is one of the pre-conditions for declaring martial law under a 1987 constitution that was drafted to prevent a repeat of the Marcos era abuses.

Military chief General Eduardo General Año said retaking Marawi has proven difficult because it was the first time troops had engaged in a “Mosul-type, hybrid urban warfare”, referring to the fighting in the Iraqi city until recently held by Islamic State.

(Reporting by Enrico dela Cruz; Additional reporting by Manuel Mogato; Editing by Martin Petty & Shri Navaratnam)

More attacks likely in Southeast Asia after Marawi: report

FILE PHOTO: Philippines army soldiers ride in trucks into the fighting zone as government troops continue their assault against insurgents from the Maute group in Marawi City, Philippines June 28, 2017. REUTERS/Jorge Silva

By Tom Allard

JAKARTA (Reuters) – As a lengthy, urban battle drags on between Philippine forces and Islamist militants in the southern city of Marawi, a new report by a think-tank has warned of more attacks by radicals in Southeast Asia, including on foreigners.

A coalition of Philippine militant groups, augmented by foreign fighters, stormed Marawi, on the island on Mindanao, nearly two months ago. The militants, who claim allegiance to Islamic State (IS), still control a portion of the city despite a sustained military offensive.

There have been similar attacks in the Philippines since last year, but the duration and ferocity of the fighting in Marawi has alarmed Southeast Asian nations and led to fears the assault could inspire and unite the region’s disparate Islamist groups.

“The risks won’t end when the military declares victory,” said Sidney Jones, director of the Institute of Policy Analysis of Conflict, adding that threats would mount in neighboring Indonesia and Malaysia, both Muslim-majority nations.

“Indonesia and Malaysia will face new threats in the form of returning fighters from Mindanao, and the Philippines will have a host of smaller dispersed cells with the capacity for both violence and indoctrination.”

The Marawi siege had united two feuding pro-IS factions in Indonesia, the world’s most-populous Muslim-majority nation, and led to soul-searching among militants there “about why they cannot manage to do anything as spectacular”, the report said.

“Once the battle for Marawi is over, it is possible that Southeast Asian ISIS leaders (in Syria) might encourage Indonesians to go after other targets, including foreigners or foreign institutions – especially if one of them comes back to lead the operations,” the report added, using another acronym for the Islamic State.

Asked about an elevated threat in Indonesia, including for foreigners, police spokesman Setyo Wasisto said: “We will stay cautious, increase our alertness and monitor the movement of those who come home from Marawi.”

Malaysia’s police counter-terrorism chief declined comment. Authorities in the Philippines did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Authorities estimate about 20 Indonesian militants were involved in the fighting in Marawi but it is not clear how many survived.

About 565 people have died in nearly two months of fighting in Marawi, according to officials, including over 420 militants, 45 civilians and almost 100 Philippines military and police.

After missing several deadlines for re-taking Marawi, Philippine officials say it is not possible to say when the fighting will end.

National Security Adviser Hermogenes Esperon told reporters on Friday a hard core of fighters has been hemmed in to three barangays, or urban villages, down from the 12 they held earlier. Marawi has 96 such barangays.

CHAIN OF COMMAND

In a key revelation, the IPAC report tracked the chain of command for the Marawi operations.

At its apex was Islamic State “Central” in Syria, represented by Katibah Nusantara, the IS military unit made up of fighters from Southeast Asia and led by Indonesian militant Bahrumsyah, likely the highest ranked member of IS from the region, it said.

Bahrumsyah organized funding and helped find international recruits, liaising with Malaysian militant Mahmud Ahmad, a former university lecturer and Islamic scholar believed to be in Marawi.

Mahmud “controlled recruitment as well as financing and has been the contact person for any foreigner wanting to join the pro-ISIS forces in the Philippines”, the report said.

Tactical decisions on the ground were made by local militant commanders but the report said “the Syria-based Southeast Asians could have a say in setting strategy for (the) region when the siege is over.”

The report warned the devastating damage to the city from Philippines military air strikes was being exploited by militant ideologues.

It cited a post on the social media platform Telegram, a message presumed to be from a militant, that said: “We did not bomb it to ashes”.

“We ordained good and forbade evil … but the response of the Crusader Army was brutal.”

The Philippines military has defended the use of air strikes in its offensive, noting that militant snipers positioned on top of buildings made it difficult for ground troops to make headway in the dense urban environment.

(Additional reporting by Stefanno Reinard in Jakarta, Rozanna Latiff in Kuala Lumpur and Martin Petty in Manila; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan)

Singapore offers cargo plane, drones to help Philippines fight militancy

FILE PHOTO: A view of the Maute group stronghold with an ISIS flag in Marawi City in southern Philippines May 29, 2017. REUTERS/Erik De Castro

By Fathin Ungku

SINGAPORE (Reuters) – Singapore has offered a military transport airplane, drone surveillance aircraft and use of combat training facilities to support the Philippines’ fight against the rising threat of Islamist militancy, the defence ministry said on Wednesday.

The offer stemmed from talks in Manila earlier this week between Singapore Defence Minister Ng Eng Hen and his Philippines counterpart Delfin Lorenzana.

Surrounded by Muslim majority countries and with a Muslim minority of its own, Singapore is worried by the small but dangerous number of people in the region who have been radicalised by Islamic State.

Ministers describe the terror threat against the wealthy city-state as the highest in recent years and alarm was heightened in May when a militant group linked to Islamic State seized Marawi City on the southern Philippines island of Mindanao.

Security forces are still battling to regain control of the town and Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte this week asked Congress to extend martial law until the end of the year on Mindanao, the only Muslim majority island in the largely Catholic Philippines.

During the past two months Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines launched joint maritime and air patrols over their shared boundaries in the Sulu Sea, to guard against the movement of militants between Borneo Island and Mindanao.

Supporting the regional effort, Singapore’s Defence Ministry said that it had offered a C-130 transport plane to deliver humanitarian supplies, drone surveillance aircraft, and use of training facilities for the Philippines military.

“While the AFP (Armed Forces of the Philippines) is confident that Marawi will be secured from terrorists soon, further concerted efforts are required to ensure that other terrorist cells do not entrench themselves in the southern Philippines, as this would cause instability to the rest of ASEAN,” the ministry said in a statement.

Fearful that Islamic State could build a base in Southeast Asia, governments in the region announced last month that they plan share intelligence, using spy planes and drones to stem the movement of militants across their porous borders.

(Editing by Simon Cameroon-Moore and Michael Perry)