MANILA, May 29 (Xinhua) -- The military has retaken most 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.
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 of 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.
