{UAH} The Latest: Army trucks roll deeper into Philippine city-Furious President Duterte threatens to deal very "harshly" with muslim fighters.
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6:59 AM |
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The Latest: Army trucks roll deeper into Philippine city
The Latest on the siege of a Philippine city that led President Rodrigo Duterte to declare martial law in the south (all times local):
10 a.m.
Army dump trucks carrying several soldiers standing up in the back are rolling toward the center of the Philippine city that is under siege by Muslim militants.
Lines of packed vehicles stretched for kilometers were streaming out of Marawi city Thursday morning. Fleeing residents were crammed inside or on top of vehicles, clutching their belongings.
The siege started Tuesday after government troops attempted to raid a hideout of a top militant. The gunmen have taken about a dozen people hostage. President Rodrigo Duterte has declared martial law in the southern Mindanao region, where Marawi is located.
6 p.m.
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte says he'll consider martial law in other parts of the Philippines "in order to protect the people."
He says "if I think that ISIS has taken a foothold also in Luzon," the main northern island, "and terrorism is not really far behind, I might declare martial law throughout the country."
Duterte also said that militants who stormed southern Marawi city beheaded the local police chief at a checkpoint they set up.
Duterte spoke to reporters after returning from a visit to Moscow as fighting raged in Marawi between government troops and Muslim militants who took about a dozen people hostage. He has earlier declared martial law in the southern Mindanao region, where Marawi is located.
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5:10 p.m.
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte says "we are in a state of emergency" and skirmishes with Muslim militants who attacked a southern city are continuing.
Speaking to reporters after returning to Manila from a visit to Moscow, Duterte repeated that he will deal with militants "harshly" after declaring martial law in the southern Mindanao region, home to a decadeslong Muslim separatist rebellion.
Duterte said he was forced to declare martial law in Mindanao for 60 days, and says his government may consider other areas in the event the militants and other Islamic State-affiliated groups seek sanctuary or expand their "terrorist activities." He mentioned the central Visayas region, where militants recently also launched attacks far from their southern strongholds.
He spoke as the fighting raged in Marawi city, where militants seized a priest, 10 worshippers and three church workers from a cathedral as they rampaged through the city.
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4:30 p.m.
The husband of a church worker abducted along with a priest and parishioners by Muslim extremists in a southern Philippine city is appealing for the release of the captives.
Jaime Mayormita's wife Wendelyn is among more than a dozen people taken from a cathedral compound in Marawi city. He said Wednesday he is worried about his wife, a secretary at the cathedral, because she does not have her medicines for a heart problem.
"I hope they free them, including Fr. Chito and my wife and their companions, because they are innocent," he told Manila's DZMM radio.
The retired policeman said he and his wife had been texting and calling each other since the violence erupted Tuesday. But when he last called her, someone else answered her phone, telling him to ask the military not to go near the area.
Mayormita said he had not been able to contact his wife since then.
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3:50 p.m.
The 175,000-strong Philippine National Police has been put on full alert nationwide and all unit commanders directed to strengthen security in all vital installations and public places.
The alert follows fighting in southern Marawi city, where Muslim militants abducted a Catholic priest and more than a dozen churchgoers while laying siege to the predominantly Muslim area.
President Rodrigo Duterte has declared martial law in the southern third of the nation and warned he will enforce it harshly.
In metropolitan Manila's Quiapo district, where a bomb blast earlier this month killed two people and wounded four others in a Muslim community, police put up checkpoints on Wednesday, stopping motorists to inspect cars and checking documents of motorcycle riders.
Police said the May 6 blast was sparked by a personal feud, but the Islamic State group claimed its fighters were responsible.
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2 p.m.
A Philippine Roman Catholic church leader says a priest and a number of churchgoers have been taken hostage from a cathedral by gunmen in a southern city.
Archbishop Socrates Villegas, president of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines, and another church official said Wednesday that gunmen forced their way into a cathedral in Marawi city and seized the Rev. Chito Suganob and more than a dozen churchgoers and staff as fighting raged between government troops and Muslim militants.
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte on Tuesday declared martial law in the south because of the militants' siege of the city. He was returning home early from a trip to Moscow to deal with the crisis.
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