ILIGAN, Philippines (AP) — Foreign fighters are among the militants linked to the Islamic State group who are battling government troops in the southern Philippines, an official said Friday. Solicitor General Jose Calida said Indonesians and Malaysians are fighting alongside the gunmen who attacked Marawi, a city of some 200,000 people on Mindanao island.
Philippines says foreigners among IS-linked gunmen in south
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"What is happening in Mindanao is no longer a rebellion of Filipino citizens," Calida told reporters.
"It has transmogrified into an invasion by foreign terrorists who heeded the clarion call of ISIS."
Philippine troops backed by armored vehicles and rocket-firing helicopters are fighting to re-take control of Marawi, which has been under siege by gunmen linked to the IS group since a raid earlier this week failed to capture one of Asia's most-wanted militants.
Rebels have torn through the streets of Marawi since Tuesday night, torching buildings, taking a priest and his worshippers hostage and sealing off much of the city. The violence forced thousands to flee and raised fears of growing extremism in the country.
At least 44 people have died in the fighting, including 31 militants and 11 soldiers, officials said Thursday. It was not immediately clear whether civilians were among the dead. 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 President Rodrigo Duterte 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 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."
Duterte imposed 60 days of martial law Tuesday on the island of Mindanao, a traditional homeland of minority Muslims that encompasses the southern third of the nation and is home to 22 million people. Marawi has a population of around 200,000.
Duterte warned he may expand martial law nationwide, an unnerving development for many in the Philippines who lived through the rule of late dictator Ferdinand Marcos. Marcos declared martial law in 1972 and used it to maintain his grip on power for more than a decade.
The man at the center of the Marawi violence is Isnilon Hapilon, an Arabic-speaking Islamic preacher known for his expertise in commando assaults. He is at the nexus of several militant groups that are trying to merge into a more powerful force.
Hapilon, who is a commander of the Abu Sayyaf militant group, pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group 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 the Islamic State group, but so far there is no sign of significant, material ties. "We have not seen any concrete evidence of material support from IS," military spokesman Brig. Gen. Restituto Padilla said Thursday. 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 night 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 believes 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 Catholic priest, 10 worshippers and three church workers, according to the city's bishop, Edwin de la Pena. The black flags of the Islamic State group 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.
More than half of the population of Marawi has cleared out, Adiong said. The problem of militancy in the south, the scene of decades-long Muslim separatist uprisings in the predominantly Catholic nation, is not new.
Duterte had repeatedly threatened to place the region under martial law, which allows him to use the armed forces to carry out arrests, searches and detentions more rapidly. But human rights groups and others fear that martial law powers could further embolden the president, who already has been accused of allowing extrajudicial killings of thousands of people in his crackdown on illegal drugs.
Philippine troops battling militants in a central province killed a key Abu Sayyaf commander who had been blamed for the beheadings of two Canadians and a German hostage and was apparently attempting another kidnapping mission, the military chief said Wednesday.
Philippines: Troops killed militant blamed for beheadings
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Military chief of staff Gen. Eduardo Ano told The Associated Press that
troops have recovered and identified the remains of Moammar Askali, who used the nom de guerre Abu Rami, in the scene of the battle in a far-flung coastal village on Bohol island, where five other Abu Sayyaf gunmen were killed in the fighting Tuesday, along with four soldiers and policemen.
Ano said
troops took the picture of Askali after his death and that captured Abu Sayyaf militants identified the young militant leader. "This is a major blow to the Abu Sayyaf," Ano told The AP. "If they have further plans to kidnap innocent people somewhere, they will now have to think twice."
The military chief said Askali had led several of militants who traveled by speedboats from their jungle lairs in southern Sulu province to Bohol province in an apparent bid to carry out another kidnapping in a region that is popular for its beach resorts and wildlife. Sporadic gunbattles between the remaining Abu Sayyaf militants and government forces continued Wednesday, military officials said.
At least 10 people has been killed since Tuesday in the fighting in Bohol, far from the extremists' southern jungle bases and in a region where the U.S. government has warned that the gunmen may be plotting kidnappings, officials said.
Military officials said at least six gunmen, three soldiers and a policeman had died in the ongoing gunbattle in a village in the coastal town of Inabanga. The island province lies near Cebu province, a bustling commercial and tourism hub.
National police chief Director General Ronald dela Rosa said troops and policemen attacked the gunmen early Tuesday in Inabanga, where the gunmen had arrived aboard three boats. The gunmen took cover in three houses as the firefight broke out.
Government forces seized control of two of the houses, and the rest of the gunmen either were in the third house or had fled the area, dela Rosa told reporters. It's the Abu Sayyaf's first known attempt to carry out ransom kidnappings deep in the heartland of the central Philippines, far from its jungle lairs in the southern provinces of Sulu and Basilan.
Bohol island, where one of the world's smallest primates, called tarsiers, are found, drawing many tourists, lies about 640 kilometers (397 miles) southeast of Manila. Bohol is about an hour away by boat from Cebu province, across the busy Cebu Strait, which is crisscrossed daily by ferries, cargo ships and fishing vessels.
Abu Sayyaf militants have crossed the sea border with Malaysia on powerful speedboats and kidnapped scores of foreign tourists in past years.
In 2001, they sailed as far as western Palawan province, where they seized 20 people, including three Americans, from a resort.
"If we were not able to monitor this and engage them with our government forces, it's a cause for alarm if they were able to carry out kidnappings," dela Rosa said. Ano said military intelligence operatives had been trying to track down the movements of the suspected militants, who first traveled from Sulu to southern Zamboanga peninsula. Intelligence later indicated the gunmen landed ashore in Inabanga, prompting military and police officials to deploy their forces, he said.
The gunmen traveled on board motor boats along a river to Inabanga's Napo village, where government forces assaulted them, military spokesman Col. Edgard Arevalo said, adding that troops recovered four rifles and a homemade bomb from the slain gunmen.
The U.S. Embassy in Manila recently advised Americans to take precautions amid "unsubstantiated yet credible information" of possible kidnappings by terrorists in Bohol, nearby Cebu province and other central areas.
The United States and the Philippines have separately blacklisted the Abu Sayyaf as a terrorist organization for bombings, kidnappings for ransom and beheadings. Some Abu Sayyaf commanders have pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group.
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has ordered troops to destroy the extremists in Sulu and in outlying island provinces, and has threatened to declare martial law in the country's south if the threat posed by the Abu Sayyaf and other extremist groups aligned with the Islamic State group gets out of control.
Although the Abu Sayyaf militants have been weakened by years of battle setbacks, they came back to international attention when they separately beheaded two Canadians last year and a German hostage earlier this year after ransom deadlines lapsed. The militants are still holding at least 29 captives in Sulu's jungles, many of them foreign tugboat and cargo ship crewmen seized at the sea border between the southern Philippines, Malaysia and Indonesia.
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte ordered his troops to crush militants who are fighting street battles with government forces in the south, warning Friday that the country is at a grave risk of "contamination" by the Islamic State group.
Duterte warns of 'contamination' by Islamic State group
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May 26, 2017 - The city of Marawi, home to some 200,000 people, has been under siege by IS-linked militants since a government raid Tuesday night on a suspected hideout of Isnilon Hapilon, who is on Washington's list of most-wanted terrorists.
The raid went awry and gunmen swept through the streets, fending off government forces and taking over large parts of the city. Duterte imposed martial law on the southern third of the nation earlier this week as the battles continued.
At least 44 people have died in the fighting, including 31 militants and 11 soldiers, officials say. It was not immediately clear whether civilians were among the dead. The violence has forced thousands of people to flee and raised fears of growing extremism.
Duterte told soldiers in Iligan, a city near Marawi, that he had long feared that "contamination by ISIS" loomed in the country's future, using the acronym for the Islamic State group. "You can say that ISIS is here already," he said.
He gave his troops a free hand to wrest control of Marawi. "You can arrest any person, search any house without warrant," said Duterte, who has allowed extrajudicial killings of thousands of people in his crackdown on illegal drugs.
Still, he also offered dialogue to militants who are not on the streets fighting. "We can still talk about it," Duterte said. "But those who are out-and-out terrorists, and you cannot be convinced to stop fighting, so be it. Let us fight."
Hapilon is still hiding out in the city under the protection of gunmen who are desperately trying to find a way to "extricate" him, the country's military chief said. "Right now, he is still inside (the city)," Gen. Eduardo Ano told The Associated Press. "We cannot just pinpoint the particular spot."
He said Hapilon suffered a stroke after a government airstrike wounded him in January. Ano predicted that the military operation will take about a week as soldiers go house to house to clear the city of militants.
"We will make this their cemetery," he said. "We have to finish this." In a sign that the long-standing problem of militancy in the south could be expanding, Solicitor General Jose Calida said foreigners were fighting alongside the gunmen in Marawi, including Indonesians and Malaysians.
Ano also said foreign fighters were believed to be inside, but he was more cautious. "We suspect that but we're still validating," he said. With much of Marawi a no-go zone, confusion reigned. One local police chief told the AP on Friday that he was fine — two days after Duterte announced 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. Enriquez has been in the job for about two months.
Witnesses say gunmen were flying black flags of the Islamic State group. Authorities were working to determine the condition of a Catholic priest and worshippers who were taken hostage by gunmen earlier this week.
Hapilon, an Islamic preacher, is a commander of the Abu Sayyaf militant group who pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group in 2014. He also heads an alliance of 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 of the groups are inspired by the Islamic State group, but so far there is no sign of significant, material ties. Washington has offered a $5 million reward for information leading to Hapilon's capture.
The southern Philippines has been troubled by decades-long Muslim separatist uprisings in the predominantly Catholic nation. But recent attacks and this week's siege suggest the threat of extremist ideology may be growing.
In Manila, hundreds of protesters marched Friday to the presidential palace to oppose Duterte's declaration of martial law in the southern Mindanao region. "We believe that it is not an answer to the problem of armed conflict in Mindanao. It will just exacerbate the situation," said Renato Reyes of the New Patriotic Alliance group.
Duterte has warned that he might expand martial law nationwide, an unnerving prospect for many in the Philippines who lived through the rule of late dictator Ferdinand Marcos. Marcos declared martial law in 1972 and used it to maintain his grip on power for more than a decade.