What’s Happening In The Philippines? ISIS Militants Continue Siege

Battle rages on after three weeks in the Philippines as government forces are attempting to quell an Islamic State-affiliated militant uprising. Agence France-Presse reported Tuesday there are up to 1,000 people trapped by the militants in the southern city of Marawi.

The conflict has left 26 civilians, 58 soldiers and police and 202 militants dead according to the government. Inside militant-held areas, survivors are being forced to work for the rebels.

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"Based on the revelations of the trapped civilians we have recovered, they are being used as orderlies to cook (the militant’s) food, to carry their munitions," local military spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Jo-ar Herrera said in a press conference.

Monday, five people were killed as they tried to flee militant-held areas.

"They were going to the river but the militants ran after them and indiscriminately fired at them, killing five and taking the remaining eight as hostages," presidential spokesman Ernesto Abella told AFP.

Tuesday morning 10 people managed to escape the conflict after running for over a mile while being shot at. The city’s population of just over 200,000 has mostly managed to escape the fighting.

The Philippine military, which is receiving US help, declared that it would have militant fighters flushed out by Philippines Independence Day on Monday. That date has come and gone, and fighting continues. There are an estimated 100 militants left in the city, per Vice News.

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has declared martial law across a large southern portion of his country. The leader was absent from Independence Day celebrations Monday.

The battle began May 23 when the ISIS-affiliated militants attempted to take the city over. Marawi has a large Muslim population, while the rest of the Philippines is mostly Catholic. The government has long had an issue with rebel groups in the area trying to establish a separate Muslim region of the Philippines.

The uprising in the Philippines has the U.S. concerned. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis spoke about the issue at a defense conference in Singapore earlier this month.

"Together we must act now to prevent this threat from growing," said Mattis at the conference. "Otherwise, it will place long-term regional security at risk and stunt regional economic dynamism. We need only to look at the chaos and violence that our friends in the Mideast are contending with to see why we must swiftly and jointly address threats to our region."

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The Combating Terrorism Center, an academic institution at the U.S. Military Academy reported that between June 2014 and April 2017 there were 20 terrorist attacks and 35 plots in Southeast Asia. Ten of the attacks and five of the plots were in the Philippines.

Cooperation between the U.S. and the Philippines is complicated by Duterte, a controversial figure. He made a habit of insulting former President Barack Obama, and has bragged of extrajudicial killing in his country of drug dealers and users.