Philippines says Islamists keep up week-long fight with prisoners

PanARMENIAN.Net - A week-long assault by Islamist rebels in a southern Philippine city is being fuelled with stolen weapons and ammunition and fighters broken out of jails, the military said on Wednesday, May 31 as troops battled militants resisting ground and air attacks, Reuters reports.

The pro-Islamic State Maute group has proven to be a fierce enemy, clinging on to the heart of Marawi City through days of air strikes on what the military called known rebel targets, defying expectations of a swift end to their occupation.

The military deployed for the first time SF-260 close air support planes to back attack helicopters and ground troops looking to box rebels into a downtown area. The army said the rebels hold about a tenth of the city.

The hardline Maute had kept up the fight with rifles and ammunition stolen from a police station, a prison, and an armoured police vehicle, and were using them to hold off the troops, said military spokesman Restituto Padilla.

The militants had freed jailed comrades to join the battle and opted to engage in urban warfare because the city had stocks of arms and ample supplies of food.

"Yes indeed, there was planning involved," Padilla said.

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte is alarmed by the strength of the Maute and intelligence reports suggesting it has teamed up with other extremist groups and has recruited foreign fighters.

He last week declared martial law on Mindanao island where Marawi is located, in a move to quell movements he said he had long warned would mushroom into what is now an Islamic State invasion.

"I specifically warned everybody there is more dark cloud ahead of us. I was referring specifically to the contamination of ISIS slowly creeping towards our shores," Duterte told navy personnel in Davao City.

"In Marawi now, I have to tell you we have suffered tremendous losses because we are the invading force and they have been waiting for a long time for the forces of the republic to come."

Eighty-nine militants, 21 security forces and 19 civilians have so far been killed during clashes.