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Philippines declares end to five-month militant siege in Marawi

A final group of 20 captives were freed overnight.

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A damaged mosque in the battle-scarred Marawi city in southern Philippines

The Philippines government has declared the end of a militant siege in a southern city that has lasted five months, left more than 1,100 people dead and sparked fears of the Islamic State group gaining a foothold in Southeast Asia.

Speaking at an annual meeting of the region’s defence ministers, Defence Secretary Delfin Lorenzana told reporters that combat operations in Marawi were ending after troops recovered 42 bodies of the last group of militants.

“Those are the last group of stragglers of Mautes and they were caught in one building so there was a firefight, so they were finished,” he said. “There are no more militants inside Marawi City.”

Philippine Defence Secretary Delfin Lorenzana addresses the media
Philippine Defence Secretary Delfin Lorenzana addresses the media (Bullit Marquez/AP)

The siege had sparked fears that IS would influence, fund and strengthen local militancies as it was losing ground in Syria and Iraq. The defeat of the IS-linked uprising and the deaths of its leaders have been a relief to the region.

“The Philippine security forces, aided by its government and the massive support of the Filipino people, have nipped the budding infrastructure and defeated terrorism in the Philippines,” Mr Lorenzana said.

He said the achievement shows how regional co-operation can contain the spread of terrorism. “In crushing thus far the most serious attempt to export violent extremism and radicalism in the Philippines and the region, we have contributed to preventing its spread in Asia.”

Families welcome home armed forces at Villamor Air Base, south-east of Manila
Families welcome home armed forces at Villamor Air Base, south-east of Manila (Bullit Marquez/AP)

Fighting terrorism is high on the agenda of the Southeast Asian defence ministers’ meeting at the Clark freeport north of Manila. As the talks opened, the head of the Brunei delegation expressed condolences for the loss of lives in Marawi but congratulated the Philippines for being able to liberate the city.

Malaysia’s minister said the siege was a wake-up call for the region. “We have to be very careful. What happened in Marawi can happen anywhere,” Defence Minister Hishammuddin Hussein said.

Hundreds of militants, many waving IS-style black flags, launched the siege on May 23 in Marawi, a bastion of Islamic faith in the south of the largely Roman Catholic Philippines, by seizing the lakeside city’s central business district and outlying communities. They ransacked banks and shops, including gun stores, looted houses and smashed statues in a Roman Catholic cathedral, according to the military.

The fighting has left at least 1,131 people dead, including 919 militants and 165 soldiers and police. At least 1,780 of the hostages seized by the militants, including a Roman Catholic priest, were rescued.

Marawi city in southern Philippines
The uprising has displaced hundreds of thousands of Marawi residents (Bullit Marquez/AP)

The final group of 20 captives were freed overnight, Army Colonel Romeo Brawner said at a news conference on Sunday. That left the gunmen with none of the hostages they had used as human shields to slow the military advance for months.

The disastrous uprising erupted as the Philippines was hosting annual summit meetings of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations this year, along with the 10-nation bloc’s Asian and Western counterparts, including the United States and Australia.

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