Marawi—United States special forces are providing support to the Philippine military battling to dislodge Islamist militants in this city, the US Embassy said Saturday as 13 Marines were killed in fresh gunbattles over the weekend.
“We are saddened with the result… we have fatalities on the government side. We have incurred 13 killed in action,” Lt. Col. Jo-ar Herrera said following the dramatic surge in the toll from more than two weeks of fierce fighting, sometimes house-to-house gunbattles with the militants.
Government troops are struggling to dislodge hundreds of Maute and Abu Sayyaf fighters, who rampaged through the mainly Muslim city of Marawi on May 23 flying black flags of the Islamic State group, and have used bomb-proof tunnels, anti-tank weapons and human shields to fortify their positions.
The fresh casualties brought to 58 the number of government troops killed in the fighting, Herrera said.
At least 138 militants and 20 civilians have also been killed, the government said.
The militants have so far withstood more than two weeks air and ground assaults by security forces, although the military said they now occupy only around 10 percent of the city.
As the fighting intensified, the US Embassy in Manila said American forces were providing assistance to the Filipino troops, at the request of the Duterte administration, although it declined to give details for security reasons.
“At the request of the government of the Philippines, US special operations forces are assisting the [Philippine military] with ongoing operations in Marawi,” the embassy said in a statement.
Herrera confirmed the US help, but said the special forces were not fighting but were only “providing technical support.”
Herrera said the militants’ tactics made it harder for security forces to carry out attacks without causing civilian casualties and hurting religious sensitivities.
“The local terrorist groups are using the mosque, they are entrenched there. They also used civilians as human shields… we are very precise in our operations to avoid collateral damage,” he said.
President Rodrigo Duterte said the militant attack was part of a wider plot by IS to establish a base in the southern region of Mindanao, and declared martial law there to quell the threat.
The announcement of US help in the embattled southern region came after Duterte has sought to reduce the Philippines’ reliance on Washington and build much closer ties with China and Russia.
The US Embassy in Manila said Washington would “continue to work with the Philippines to address shared threats to the peace and security of our countries, including on counterterrorism issues.” With AFP