27 May, 2017
Marawi mayor Majul Gandamra said some rebels from the Maute, a militant group that has pledged allegiance to Islamic State, were still holed up in buildings and sporadic gunfire could be heard.
The army raided what it believed to be his hideout on Tuesday night in Marawi, but the operation quickly went wrong. Hapilon is on Washington's list of most-wanted terrorists and has a $5 million bounty on his head. "I can not gamble with ISIS because they are everywhere".
He vowed to be "harsh".
"Secretary Delfin Lorenzana is on his way back from Russian Federation with the President to personally oversee the situation", DND public affairs office chief Arsenio Andolong said in a statement Wednesday.
"This will be a game-changer in the fight against Islamist extremism, we haven't seen anything like this before". "And if it means many people dying, so be it". "There are safeguards in our constitution to prevent abuses", he said. President Rodrigo Duterte has declared martial law in the southern Mindanao region, where Marawi is located.
He spoke as the fighting raged in Marawi city, where militants seized a priest, 10 worshippers and three church workers from a cathedral as they rampaged through the city.
"He was not a combatant". He was not bearing arms. "His capture and that of his companions violates every norm of civilized conflict". "He was a threat to none", the archbishop said.
A policeman stands at a checkpoint in Manila, Philippines, Wednesday as the Philippine National Police is placed under full alert status following the declaration of martial law in Mindanao southern Philippines. About 120 civilians were rescued from the hospital, the military said.
In the city where Duterte was mayor for 22 years, and enjoys a cult-like following, residents were supportive of martial law. She quoted another official as saying Marawi was like "a ghost town".
"People are afraid. They do not want to open establishments".
He added the imposition of martial law in Mindanao is a necessary step in order for government security forces to stop the threat that these terrorists pose, who are mostly not originally from Marawi City.
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.
Hapilon has sworn allegiance to Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. "We can do that easily", Ano said, but added it was more hard in an urban setting because of the need to avoid civilian casualties.
A tactically smart, social media savvy group eager to align with Islamic State has emerged from the glut of bandit and separatist groups in the southern Philippines, and so far has proved to be more than a match for the military.
A report said the terorrists took over the city jail around 6 p.m. "I'm just praying that the bullets will not find their way to my house and hit us". However, the atmosphere has improved since President Donald Trump took office, although no major steps have been taken yet to bolster the U.S. -Philippines relationship.
According to local reports, members of the militant so-called Maute group murdered the group by a check-point after they were identified as Christian.
"We can do that easily", Ano said, but added it was more hard in an urban setting because of the need to avoid civilian casualties. "The Mautes are embedded in the population".
Filipino Catholics pray during a mass for victims of the recent attack in Marawi by Muslim militants linked to the Islamic State group and also for extrajudicial killings inside a church in Manila, Philippines on Thursday, May.
