The Philippine military urged Islamist militants occupying a southern city to turn themselves in on Tuesday, the eighth day of a push by security forces using armoured vehicles and firing rockets from helicopters to eliminate the gunmen.
The government says it is close to retaking Marawi from the Islamic State-linked Maute group, which seized parts of the city after a failed attempt by security forces to capture Isnilon Hapilon, the militants’ so-called emir of Southeast Asia.
“We call on the remaining terrorists to surrender while there is an opportunity,” a military spokesman, Brigadier-General Restituto Padilla, told reporters.
As helicopters circled the lakeside city where smoke billowed out of some buildings, troops cleared rebel positions amid explosions and automatic gunfire, moving house by house and street by street.
More than 100 people have been killed, most of them militants, according to the military, and most of the city’s residents have fled.
A Catholic priest held captive by the militants with a dozen other civilians appealed to President Rodrigo Duterte to consider their plight and stop the military operation.
Father Teresito “Chito” Soganub, vicar general of Marawi City, and the others were abducted in a cathedral last week.
“We are asking your help to please give what your enemies are asking for,” the priest said on a video clip shown on a Telegram channel used by Islamic State.
“We still want to live for another day, a month and a few years, please consider us Mr President,” he said.
A politician involved in efforts to evacuate residents, Zia Alonto Adiong, said authorities had cleared 85 per cent of the city but reclaiming the rest would be a challenge because they were dense urban areas with trapped civilians.
“There’s an intensifying military operation that’s going on,” Adiong told a media briefing.
Though most people have left, thousands are stranded; worried they could be intercepted by militants if they tried to flee.
