Manila Deploys Commandoes, Helicopters to Retake City from Daesh
Local Editor
The Philippines mobilized attack helicopters and Special Forces to drive Daesh-linked militants out of a besieged southern city on Thursday, with six soldiers killed in street combat amid heavy resistance.
Ground troops hid behind walls and armored vehicles and exchanged volleys of gunfire with Maute group fighters, shooting into elevated positions occupied by militants who have held Marawi City on Mindanao Island for two days.
Helicopters circled the city, peppering Maute positions with machine gun fire to try to force them from a bridge vital to retaking Marawi, a mainly Muslim city of 200,000 where fighters had torched and seized a school, a jail and a cathedral, and took more than a dozen hostages.
"Our troops are doing deliberate operations in areas we believe are still occupied or infested with the terrorist presence," said the head of the task force, Brigadier General Rolly Bautista.
The battles with the Maute group, which has pledged allegiance to Daesh [the Arabic acronym for the Takfiri ‘ISIS/ISIL' group], started on Tuesday during a failed raid by security forces on one of the group's hideouts that spiraled into chaos.
Daesh claimed responsibility late on Wednesday for Maute's activities via its Amaq news agency.
At least 46 people have been killed and religious leaders say militants were using Christians taken hostage during the fighting as human shields. The status of those hostages was not known.
Meanwhile, hundreds of civilians had sheltered in a military camp in Marawi City as troops helped clear the few remaining people from streets where smoke lingered in the air.
Marawi is located in Lanao del Sur province, a stronghold of the Maute, a fierce, but little-known group that has been a tricky opponent for the military.
Source: Reuters, Edited by website team
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