Islamic state 'gaining foothold' in Asean region

Philippines armed forces and (above) combat police say they have regained full control of movements within Marawi but Islamists still hold parts of the city. (AP photo)

MANILA - Philippine forces control most of a southern city where militants linked to the Islamic State group launched a bloody siege nearly a week ago, authorities said Monday, as the army launched airstrikes and went house-to-house to crush areas of resistance.

More than 100 people, including 24 civilians, have been killed in six days of fighting, the government said. Many more were believed to be trapped inside the city.

"I have to rescue my grandfather even at the risk of my life," Khana-Anuar Marabur Jr said after police stopped him for speeding through a checkpoint. He said his grandfather had been sending him text messages asking to be saved.

"Get me out of here alive, not dead," one message said. "This war is taking too long."

The crisis in Marawi, which is home to some 200,000 people, has raised fears that extremism in the southern Philippines is increasing as smaller militant groups unify and align themselves with the Islamic State group.

Only small areas of Marawi remain under militants' control after six days of fighting, said Brig Gen Restituto Padilla, the military spokesman. In recent days, gunmen have managed to fend off attack helicopters, armoured vehicles and scores of soldiers.

"We can control who comes in and who comes out, who moves around and who doesn't, and we are trying to isolate these pockets of resistance that have remained," Padilla said.

Philippine National Police Chief Ronald de la Rosa said the operation was taking time because the gunmen are taking advantage of the urban environment, moving quickly from building to building to evade capture.

"I cannot give operational details, but I am sure they are also human, they will also get tired," he said.

According to government figures Monday, the death toll was 105 people - 61 militants, 20 government forces and 24 civilians.

The bodies of several civilians were found on the streets Sunday as soldiers cleared neighbourhoods. In one area, the bodies of eight men who appeared to have been executed by militants were found in a ravine, police said. The bodies of four other men, three women and a child were found near a road close to Mindanao State University in Marawi.

The violence prompted President Rodrigo Duterte last week to declare 60 days of martial law in the southern Philippines, and spurred fears that the Islamic State (IS) was making inroads in the Philippines and in the region.

Rohan Gunaratna, a terrorism expert at Singapore's S Rarajatnam School of International Studies, believes that IS and the smaller regional groups are working together to show their strength and declare a Philippine province of the caliphate that IS says it created in the Middle East.

He said the fighting in Marawi, along with smaller battles elsewhere in the southern Philippines, may be precursors to declaring a province, which would be "a huge success for the terrorists."

Southeast Asian fighters fleeing the Middle East "could look to Mindanao to provide temporary refuge as they work their way home," said a report late last year by the Jakarta-based Institute for Policy Analysis of Conflict, predicting a high risk of regional violence. Marawi is regarded as the heartland of the Islamic faith on Mindanao island.

For nearly a week, the Islamic gunmen have held the Philippine army at bay at Marawi, burning buildings, taking at least a dozen hostages and sending tens of thousands of residents fleeing. Officials say the commander, Isnilon Hapilon, who is one of Washington's most-wanted militants, is still hiding somewhere in the city.

President Rodrigo Duterte declared martial law for 60 days in the south last week after the militants went on a deadly rampage in Marawi following a failed military raid to capture Hapilon.

In recent years, small militant groups have emerged in the Philippines, Indonesia and Malaysia and have begun unifying under the banner of the Islamic State group.

Jose Calida, the top Philippine prosecutor, said last week that Indonesians and Malaysians were among the fighters in Marawi, and that the violence on the large southern island of Mindanao "is no longer a rebellion of Filipino citizens."

Last week, twin suicide bombings in Jakarta, Indonesia, claimed by IS killed three policemen. While Indonesia has been fighting militants since 2002, the rise of the Islamic State group has breathed new life into local militant networks and raised concern about the risk of Indonesian fighters returning home from the Middle East.