Islamic State-linked militants besiege Philippine city

TIL Desk/World/ Marawi (Philippines)/ Army tanks packed with soldiers rolled into a southern Philippine city today as gunfire and explosions rang out after militants linked to the Islamic State group torched buildings, seized more than a dozen Catholic hostages and raised the black flag of ISIS.

At least 21 people have died in fighting that erupted late Tuesday, when the army raided the Marawi hideout of Isnilon Hapilon, who is on Washington’s list of most-wanted terrorists and has a USD 5 million bounty on his head.

The operation went wrong as the militants called in reinforcements and swept through the mostly Muslim city of 200,000 people. Hapilon’s whereabouts were not clear, but there was no indication he was captured in the raid.

President Rodrigo Duterte declared martial law across the southern third of the nation, home to some 22 million people, and warned he may expand it nationwide. He vowed to be “harsh.”  “If I think that you should die, you will die,” he said yesterday. “If you fight us, you will die. If there is open defiance, you will die. And if it means many people dying, so be it.”