Manila declares militants in Marawi City 'finished'

Five-month battle has seen 1,100 killed, 400,000 residents displaced

CLARK, the Philippines - Philippine Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana declared the last of the pro-Islamic State group militants in southern Marawi City "finished" on Monday, exactly five months after the start of the siege that sparked fears of the group gaining a foothold in Southeast Asia.

Speaking at an annual meeting of Southeast Asian defense ministers, Lorenzana said troops recovered 42 bodies of the last group of militants.

"Those are the last group of stragglers of Mautes and they were caught in one building so there was a firefight, so they were finished," he said.

Two security officials had said earlier on Monday that troops had found the bodies after capturing the building where the militants made their final stand.

Lorenzana said the last hostages the militants had been holding were recovered earlier. "There are no more militants inside Marawi City," he said.

The siege had sparked fears the IS group would influence and strengthen local militancies while losing ground in Syria and Iraq. The defeat of the IS-linked uprising and the deaths of its leaders have been a relief to the region.

Fighting terrorism is high on the agenda of the Southeast Asian defense ministers' meeting at the Clark freeport north of Manila. As the meetings opened, the head of the Brunei delegation expressed condolences for the loss of lives in Marawi but congratulated the Philippines for being able to liberate the city.

Malaysian Defense Minister Hishammuddin Hussein said the siege was a wake-up call for the region. "We have to be very careful. What happened in Marawi can happen anywhere," Hussein said.

Hundreds of militants, many waving the IS group-style black flags, launched the siege on May 23 in Marawi, a bastion of Islamic faith in the south of the largely Roman Catholic Philippines, by seizing the lakeside city's central business district and outlying communities. They ransacked banks and shops, including gun stores, looted houses and smashed statues in a Roman Catholic cathedral, according to the military.

The fighting has left at least 1,109 people dead, including 897 militants, 165 soldiers and police and 47 civilians. At least 1,780 of the hostages seized by the militants, including a priest, were rescued. The final group of 20 captives were freed overnight, Army Colonel Romeo Brawner said at a news conference on Sunday. That left the gunmen with none of the hostages they had used as human shields to slow the military advance for months.

The disastrous unrest, which has displaced more than 400,000 Marawi residents, erupted as the Philippines was hosting annual summit meetings of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations this year, along with the 10-nation bloc's Asian and Western counterparts, including the United States and Australia. The two governments have deployed surveillance aircraft and drones to help Filipino troops rout the Marawi militants.

Last week, troops killed the final two surviving leaders of the siege, including Isnilon Hapilon, who is listed among the FBI's most-wanted terror suspects in the world, and Omarkhayam Maute. Following their deaths, President Rodrigo Duterte traveled near the main scene of battle and declared Marawi had been essentially liberated.

DNA tests done in the US requested by the Philippine military have confirmed the death of Hapilon, according to the US embassy in Manila. Washington has offered a bounty of up to $5 million for Hapilon, who had been blamed for kidnappings for ransom of US citizens and other terrorist attacks.

Among the foreign militants believed to be with the remaining gunmen in Marawi were Malaysian militant Amin Baco and an Indonesian known only as Qayyim. Both have plotted attacks and provided combat training to local militants for years but have eluded capture in the south.

Lorenzana said on Monday the identities of the final 42 bodies had not been determined and some were beyond recognition.

AP - Xinhua - AFP - Philippine Daily Inquirer / ANN

(China Daily 10/24/2017 page12)