16 October 2017•Update: 16 October 2017
By Roy Ramos and Hader Glang
ZAMBOANGA CITY, Philippines
The top leaders of the Daesh-linked militant groups battling with Philippine troops in Marawi City were killed in intensive firefights early Monday.
In a statement, Defense Chief Delfin Lorenzana said they received reports from the Armed Forces of the Philippines ground commanders in Marawi that the operation conducted by the government forces to retake the last remaining Daesh-Maute stronghold in the city resulted in the death of the last terrorist leaders Isnilon and Omar, and that their bodies have been recovered by the operating units.
The remains of the leaders, Abu Sayyaf leader, Isnilon Hapilon, the alleged emir of Daesh in Southeast Asia and Omar Khayyam Maute, one of the Maute siblings who plotted the siege in the Philippines’ Islamic City, were taken, compared with file photos and have reportedly matched
"The report also said that our troops have rescued 17 civilian hostages and mopping up operations are underway," Lorenzana statement read.
"We will announce the termination of hostilities once government forces have ensured that there are no more terrorist-stragglers and we have cleared all structures of improvised explosive device and other traps. After the fighting stops, we will refocus our efforts on the challenging task of rebuilding and rehabilitating Marawi," said Lorenzana.
The long-drawn battle in the Islamic city has been raging for nearly five months. It erupted on May 23, following a botched arrest of Hapilon, one of the U.S.’s most wanted terrorists with a $5 million bounty for his capture for his alleged participation in the 2000 Dos Palmas kidnappings of 17 Filipinos and three Americans.
More than 1,000 people including soldiers, civilians, policemen and mostly Maute militants died in the conflict.
The siege has reduced the city of Marawi into ruins, with many buildings, mosques destroyed and riddled with bullets and shrapnel.
President Rodrigo Duterte also offered PHP10 million and PHP5 million bounties on Hapilon and Maute’s heads respectively early this year.
The retaliation of the terror groups was also seen to have been long planned in a bid to establish an Islamic State caliphate in Southeast Asia.
The battle in Marawi prompted Duterte to place all of the southern Philippines’ Mindanao islands under martial law which is not set to expire until the year’s end.
