Rebels linked to the Islamic State expanded the insurgency in the southern Philippines on Wednesday, attacking another town and taking a school full of children hostage.
The site of the new battle was Pigcawayan, about 120 miles south of Marawi, the city where ISIS-affiliated insurgents have been battling Philippine troops for the past five weeks. The attack force included gunmen from the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF), a group seeking to form a separate state for Filipino Muslims living on the southern island of Mindanao.
The BIFF is one of several Islamist groups in the Philippines to swear allegiance to ISIS over the past few years.
Early police reports said there were over 300 militants involved in the attack, but the Philippine military claimed there were only about 50. A Philippine infantry officer later spoke of pursuing some 200 armed militants into the marshlands after they fled the city, however.
According to Philippine Brig. General Restituto Padilla, the attackers made a “hasty withdrawal” after encountering his forces, “leaving behind 31 hostages, among them 12 youngsters.”
The BIFF claims it did not take any hostages when it stormed the school and merely escorted adults and children present in the building to a “safe place” where the would not be harmed in the crossfire.
“We secured them. We protected them from the bullets of the Army. We will release them later. We did not use them as human shields,” a BIFF spokesman said of civilians in the “custody” of the group. Philippine officials charged that several the hostages were used as human shields.
According to these officials, the BIFF force was not fighting the Philippine army; they attacked a small paramilitary police unit called the Barangay Peacekeeping Action Team (BPAT). “Barangay” is the Philippine term for a county or province.
Police sources also reported BIFF rebels attacked raided the village of Malagakit in the same province, exchanging fire with government forces. General Padilla speculated that these attacks were meant to draw government forces away from the main battle in Marawi City.
The struggle for Marawi has dragged on for weeks longer than the Philippine government predicted. On Tuesday, President Rodrigo Duterte said he was prepared to order the “carpet bombing” of the city.
“As early as last year, it was already difficult to enter Marawi,” said Duterte. “You don’t invade it with men. You really crush it with bombs.”
“I will not put the soldiers at high risk,” he insisted. “If I have to flatten the place, I will do it. And I will take full responsibility for it.”
Duterte said one reason he was ready to take such extreme measures was fear that the insurgency would spread across Mindanao, prompting Christians to take up arms against the Muslim rebels.
“If there’s civil war, there would be killings. Here in Mindanao, there are more Christians and they have better guns. They are buying. The rich ones, they’re stockpiling guns,” he explained.
The Philippine government ominously announced on Wednesday it was preparing tent cities for the return of some 200,000 displaced residents of Marawi City… and mass graves to handle the unknown number of dead. Several hundred insurgents are believed to have been killed over the past five weeks.
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