Blasts rock besieged city as Philippines marks independence day

A Philippine Air Force attack helicopter firing a rocket as they continue to assault the Maute group in Marawi City, on May 29, 2017.

MARAWI CITY, Philippines (REUTERS) - Bomb blasts rocked Marawi City in the southern Philippines on Monday (June 12) as the national flag was raised to mark independence day, almost three weeks after hundreds of Muslim militants overran the town and hunkered down with civilians as human shields.


"To our Muslim brothers there, we want to tell them to stop their meaningless fight because we are all Muslims," Vice Provincial Governor Mamintal Adiong Jr told the gathering.


Almost the entire population of about 200,000 fled from the lakeside town on the Philipppines' southernmost island of Mindanao, but beyond the checkpoints fencing it off there are still some 500-1,000 civilians trapped or being held hostage.


The seizure of Marawi by fighters allied to the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS), including some from the Middle East, has alarmed South-east Asian nations which fear the ultra-radical group - on a backfoot in Iraq and Syria - is trying to set up a stronghold on Mindanao that could threaten their region.

Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte said on Sunday 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 ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, whose movement is commonly referred to as ISIS, had given instructions for the attack on Marawi.


Foreign Affairs Minister Allan Peter Cayetano said in an independence day speech in Manila 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 ISIS' "emir" of South-east Asia.

"We want to coordinate very well with Indonesia and Malaysia so they won't also suffer in the hands of extremists," he said. "But the president knew at the start of his term that, as the allies become more successful in Syria and Iraq, they (ISIS) will be looking for a land base, and Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines will be a potential target to them."

Washington said at the weekend it was providing support to the Armed Forces of the Philippines to clear the militants from pockets of Marawi. Manila said this was technical assistance and there were no US "boots on the ground".





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 defence department.