Muslim militants holed up for more than three weeks in Marawi, southern Philippines, have been executing civilians trapped in bombed-out districts in the city, officials said yesterday.
In a statement provided to Defense News, a U.S. Special Operations Command Pacific spokeswoman said, "U.S. special operations forces are assisting the AFP with ongoing operations in Marawi that helps AFP commanders on the ground in their fight against Maute and ASG militants" at the request of the Philippine government. The aircraft flew above rocket-firing Philippine helicopters that struck militant positions, causing plumes of smoke to billow skyward.
Though many are suprised that US military is providing assitance to Filipino soldiers despite Duterte's unpleasant remarks about American leaders and worldwide organisations, the leader clarified that he had personal difference with only former US President Barrack Obama and not with the current President Donald Trump. "It's noncombat assistance", military spokesman Brig.
Cayetano said the Marawi siege had affirmed Duterte's warning that IS extremists would target Southeast Asian countries after staging atrocities in the Middle East.
"Islamic State fighters are spread in more than two-thirds of Marawi and tighten the chokehold on the Philippine army that is incapable of maintaining control of the situation", it said.
About 1,000 residents are believed to be still trapped in the crisis-hit city.
Some media reports highlighted the absence of the president at a time of serious conflict, but a spokesman said he was exhausted and needed to rest.
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The conflict has left 26 civilians, 58 soldiers and police and 202 militants dead according to the government.
Nearly the entire population of about 200,000 fled after the militants tried to overrun it, but the military believes that beyond the checkpoints now fencing off its main roads there are still some 500 to 600 civilians trapped or being held hostage. He said on Sunday that he was not aware the USA government was providing assistance to government troops in its battle against Islamist militants in a southern city. "They are just providing technical support", military spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Jo-Ar Herrera told a news conference in Marawi City. The Filipino leader didn't provide any additional evidence. Ominta Romato Maute was arrested in the town of Masiu, Lanao del Sur.
They had already forged a maritime security agreement with the Philippines a year ago, which allowed Malaysian and Indonesian law enforcers to pursue fleeing criminals in Philippine territorial waters and vice versa, the report said.
President Duterte has said the militant attack was part of a wider plot by IS to establish a base in the southern region of Mindanao, and declared martial law there to quell the threat.
Defence Secretary Delfin Lorenzana, the designated administrator of martial law, has ordered the arrest of almost 200 militants, politicians and other suspected civilian backers of the unprecedented uprising in Marawi, the mosque-studded heartland of Islamic faith in the south of the predominantly Roman Catholic nation.
The graffiti reads "welcome home of ISIS [Daesh]" on a back-alley wall as government soldiers continue their assault against the por-Daesh Maute group in Marawi City, Philippines, June 12, 2017.
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