Two top leaders of a months-long militant assault on Marawi City in the southern Philippines were attempting to abandon their men when they were killed by Philippine soldiers, military officials said yesterday.
The two Islamic State-linked leaders, Omar Maute and Isnilon Hapilon, were killed in a military assault in Marawi City on Monday morning.
“The circumstances of their death (was) not a good one,” military spokesman Brigadier General Restituto Padilla said in an interview with ANC Headstart.
“They were in the process of abandoning their friends, their colleagues who were left in the battlefield. They were escaping towards the lake when they were neutralised,” he added.
Seven other militants were also killed in the pre-dawn attack, according to the spokesman.
He said the military was able to pinpoint the building where the leaders were holed up through accounts by some of the hostages who had been rescued.
The conflict was triggered on May 23 by an attempt by government security forces to arrest Hapilon, the suspected leader of the Islamic State terrorist movement in the Philippines and South-East Asia.
More than 1,000 people have died in the ensuing violence. Hapilon was supported in the conflict by a group of militants led by Omar Maute and his brother Abdullah, who was reportedly killed in August. The so-called Maute Group has also pledged allegiance to Islamic State.
President Rodrigo Duterte on Tuesday declared Marawi City “liberated from the terrorist influence.” But the battle rages on as soldiers try to wipe out around 20-30 remaining militants in the combat zone.
In a press conference in Marawi City on Monday, which was televised live, Armed Forces chief General Eduardo Ano said the two slain leaders had been offering millions of pesos to those willing to help them escape. Hapilon and Maute reportedly asked their hostages to provide them with boats.
The boats were readied but they struggled to reach them as they came under fire from soldiers during the raid, Ano said.
The soldiers were able to rescue 17 hostages during that operation, including women, children and a two-month-old baby, military spokesman Padilla said.
Navymen have been posted to Lake Lanao, a potential escape route to other towns in Lanao del Sur province, in which Marawi City is located.




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