Islamist militants locked in an urban battle with troops in Marawi City had long planned to carve out an enclave of their own in Mindanao to fulfill a requirement for them to be recognized by the Islamic State (IS) international terror group.
This was according to the military after the emergence of a video showing the Islamist militants’ leaders in a secret strategy meeting, and among them was Abu Sayyaf leader and touted as Islamic State emir for Southeast Asia, Isnilon Hapilon.
The footage, found on a mobile phone as government forces closed in on the fighters in Marawi City, showed a group of men in a room discussing how they would take hostages from a school, seal off roads and capture a highway into the lakeside town.
Seated at a table was Hapilon, the leader of the Abu Sayyaf rebel group who was proclaimed by Islamic State last year as its “emir” of Southeast Asia. The U.S. State Department has offered a bounty of up to $5 million for his arrest.
Hapilon has formed an alliance with the Maute group, a tactically smart, social-media savvy outfit, and at least two other factions that have lined up behind the ultra-radical Islamic State.
“The video actually is footage of the planning stages, of the actual plan of the group, to take over Marawi, to seal off some entry points and exit points, and at the same time keep it and declare it as their area. The conversation there also discussed the possibility of or the need for creating more damage and sowing terror in the heartland of Marawi,” said Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) spokesperson Restituto Padilla.
“So in essence what we have discovered proves earlier findings that the presence of (Isnilon) Hapilon and his cohorts in Marawi was not only because of wanting to seek treatment for an illness, or to be there to connect with other terrorist elements, but was actually a prelude to a bigger event that I just described.”
The battle for Marawi has raised concerns that Islamic State, on the back foot in Syria and Iraq, is building a regional base on the Philippine island of Mindanao that could pose a threat to neighboring Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore too.
Officials said that, among the several hundred militants who seized the town on May 23, there were about 40 foreigners from Indonesia and Malaysia but also fighters from India, Saudi Arabia, Morocco and Chechnya.
“Apparently there has already been a connection with all these groups. They have banded together to create and sow havoc in various areas, but particularly Marawi City. And our presumption and our analysts say that this is in compliance with the last requirement they would like to have regarding their attempt to get recognition from the bigger group, Daesh (a commonly used Arabic acronym for Islamic State). So what they have in mind is a final event hopefully to fulfil that requirement,” AFP spokesperson Padilla said.
(based on a Reuters report)
