On Saturday, Philippine media reported that ISIS fighters remaining in the city of Marawi are now besieged inside the city’s grand mosque. ISIS fighters are reportedly holding at least 40 civilian as hostages inside the mosque.
On August 18, a military source of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) announced that the ISIS-held area in Marawi is now just 800*600 meters. So far, 573 ISIS fighters has been killed by the AFP in Marawi city, while the AFP has lost 128 soldiers.
The ISIS-linked Amaq news agency released a new infographic on August 18 claiming that Pangarungan, Marinaut and Alaa districts in Marawi city are still under the ISIS control.
Click to see the full-size image
The infographic claimed that 335 AFP soldiers were killed, 37 of them by ISIS snipers during 86 days of fighting in Marawi city.
Amaq also announced that ISIS fighters burned a Christian church, destroyed 8 armored vehicles of the AFP and damaged one another.
The Philippines’ Secretary of National Defense announced earlier this month that the battle with ISIS in Marawi city might go on for another two months. However, if the Philippian media reports are true, the AFP might liberate Marawi city sooner.
Had President Duterte accepted the offer of US help to eliminate ISIS the terror problem in the area could have lasted for 16 years :) Thankfully he declined the US Poison Chalice and politely declined the american offer :)
Your analysis is correct.
The US as usual is creating the impression that they are Alpha and Omega in military conflicts. That they can offer military help everywhere and anywhere there is one. This is a dangerous illusion that the Philippines quickly understood and correctly declined such offer. Yes they will come, but will they go? The answer is no and that’s because the war will last forever.
The US military has been very generous to the Pinoys, yet the Pinoys choose to go it alone in bombing Marawi. They want more Pinoy casualties I guess. No skin off of America’s nose. The F-18s and AV-8Bs will be ready to bomb away when Duterte secretly begs Trump for airstrikes. It’ll be good to kill Moros again in the PI after a 104 year hiatus. God bless America and her Global War on Terror!
Halt’s maul, you CIA-pawn The US Army would have armed and trained that f*king CIA-“Muslims” like they did in SYRIA.
You cannot stop this BS, could you? Damn’ CIA-Propaganda-cockroaches, no matter what you say or write, it stinks like a skunk. You f*king global criminal Yanks, go home to you and don’t let your stvpid faces shown there again. YOU ARE the Terrorists, you scumbags.
In every bad thing that happens across the World, is your nose sticking in it. Every country that has an US -Embassy, has the next “Orange-SOROS-revolution” like Kiev, Belgrade, now that lamentable try in Syria to topple the INDEPENDENT heads of States. Us Embassy = CIA= false-flag terror acts . In other words, they have the sh*t in house. Just get lost, you CIA-Donkeyphant a++hole
You can’t fix stupid. The US has been killing Muslims in the Philippines since 1901. These ISIS-linked terrorists were known as the Abu Sayyaf Group (funded by Saddam Hussein) until ISIS came onto the scene in 2014. The US has been helping Pinoys fight them since 9/11. Just take that needle out of your arm for a few hours and educate yourself before spewing out anti-American drivel.