Bomb blasts yesterday rocked Marawi City in the southern Philippines as the national flag was raised to mark independence day.
Rescue workers, soldiers and firemen sang the national anthem and listened to speeches as three OV-10 attack aircraft darted through the cloudy sky, taking it in turns to drop bombs on areas where fighters are still holed up.
Flag ceremonies are normally performed twice a week, but this was the first in the mainly Muslim town since May 23, the first day of the siege, when the militants killed and abducted Christians and torched a cathedral.
Photo: Reuters
Nearly the entire population of about 200,000 fled from the lakeside town on the Philippines’ southernmost island of Mindanao, but beyond the checkpoints fencing it off there are still between 500 and 1,000 civilians trapped or being held hostage.
As of Saturday, the number of security forces killed stood at 58. The death toll for civilians was 20 and more than 100 had been killed overall.
The seizure of Marawi by fighters allied with the Islamic State (IS) group has alarmed Southeast Asian nations which fear the ultra-radical group is trying to set up a stronghold on Mindanao that could threaten their region.
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte on Sunday said he had not expected the battle for Marawi to be as serious as it has turned out, adding it had now emerged “that Baghdadi himself, the leader of the ISIS, has specifically ordered terroristic activities here in the Philippines.”
Duterte did not say how he knew that IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, whose movement is commonly referred to as ISIS, had given instructions for the attack on Marawi.
Philippine Secretary for Foreign Affairs Alan Peter Cayetano said that the militants had planned to take over at least two or three cities in Mindanao.
Their plot was foiled because troops made a preemptive raid on Marawi to capture Isnilon Hapilon, leader of the Abu Sayyaf group and IS’ “emir” of Southeast Asia.
“The president knew at the start of his term that, as the allies become more successful in Syria and Iraq, [IS] will be looking for a land base, and Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines will be a potential target to them,” he said.
Washington on the weekend said it was providing support to clear the militants from pockets of Marawi.
Manila said this was technical assistance and there were no US “boots on the ground.”
US support included aerial surveillance and targeting, electronic eavesdropping, communications assistance and training, a US official said on condition of anonymity.
A US surveillance plane was seen over the town on Friday.
Duterte on Sunday said he had not sought support from Washington to end the siege and had not been aware that US special forces were assisting.
Cayetano said the government did not need to be involved in decisions on US participation because of a bilateral visiting forces agreement and — with “events happening real time” — such matters are left to the armed forces and defense department.
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