MANILA, May 29 (Xinhua) -- The military has retaken most parts of Marawi city in the southern Philippines from Maute militants who have pledged allegiance to the Islamic State (IS), a spokesman for the military said on Monday.
"The armed forces, the police and all our forces are in complete control of the city except for certain areas of the city (which the militants) continue to hold. These are the subject of clearing operations that are continuously being conducted," Brig. Gen. Restituto Padilla, spokesman for the Armed Forces of the Philippines, told a news conference at the Malacanang presidential palace.
Contrary to news reports that militants have gained control of the city, Padilla stressed the government troops "are in full control" of the besieged city, "meaning to say we can control who comes in and who comes out, who moves around and who doesn't, and we're trying to isolate all these pockets of resistance that have remained."
However, he said that there is still a need to continue the military "surgical air strikes" to completely flush out the militants.
"And in that aspect of the operations that we are conducting, it may seem that these are big activities but there was a need to do surgical air strikes because of strategically in-placed enemy presence," he said.
He added the military cannot stop the offensive at this point "because if we do not employ combat power as we need it and (in the end) we would prolong the clearing process and we would endanger more lives, both civilians and military."
Padilla expressed hope that the crisis will end soon.
"We do not have a timeline but we're seeking to end this as soon as possible," Padilla said. He said the military ground commanders "have assured that the end is almost there."
"We hope to get clear results. We have complete control of the city by the way contrary to what is coming out in social media and other information. It is not true that half of the city is controlled by the rebels, totally untrue," he reiterated.
Gen. Eduardo Ano, the chief of staff, said in a statement that the Maute militants initially plan to burn the whole city. He said the plan was aborted when government troops and the police forces raided the militants hideout last week.
Col. Edgard Arevalo, the public affairs office of the military, said security remains tight in and around the city as soldiers and police try to contain the remaining militants in the city.
"It is a challenge for us to prevent enemy reinforcements from coming to the city as they may also disguise themselves as civilians," Arevalo said in a statement.
He said the military has intensified the military's check point operations to spot those militants who may try to escape by blending with the evacuees.
In the meantime, Arevalo said the troops are "using precision ammunition" in conducting surgical airstrikes.
"This means that we have well-identified targets and we have highly skilled and trained pilots delivering the payload to our targets," Arevalo said.
Specifically, he added the airstrikes are intended "to destroy enemy positions that are preventing security forces from advancing and clearing the remaining pockets of resistance and in rescuing civilians still trapped in the city."
He said the military has rescued 390 civilians during its clearing operations. Media reports also showed footage of hostages who reportedly managed to escape.
Army Col. Alex Aduca told reporters that Iligan City, where Marawi's some 200,000 residents have evacuated, is also on lockdown on Monday over fears that militants from Marawi City might also sneak in. He said the move is to make sure that no militants are able to infiltrate the city.
However, Aduca said that Iligan City is still "open," adding the military is just "intensifying the security operations" to prevent the militants from sneaking into Iligan City.
"We want to ensure the safety of people here (in Iligan), to prevent elements from entering and conducting terrorist activities," Aduca said, adding that some militants are trying to sneak into Iligan City.
President Rodrigo Duterte, who declared martial law on the island of Mindanao in the southern Philippines on Tuesday night, vowed to crush the IS-linked militants that tried to occupy the city last week in a bid to carve our a caliphate out of Mindanao island.
The violence that broke out on May 23 on the southern island left almost 100 people dead, the military said. The military has earlier said that some dead militants are foreigners from neighboring countries.
Among the dead in the clashes were 15 soldiers and three policemen, Padilla said. He said that as of Sunday at least 61 soldiers and three policemen have also been wounded.
Thousands of residents have fled the city since last week, according to news reports.
