THE city of Marawi, President Rodrigo Duterte declared on October 17th, has been liberated from the jihadists who had seized control of it. Mr Duterte was speaking in Marawi a day after Philippine forces had killed Isnilon Hapilon, a leader of Abu Sayyaf, a local militant group, who had declared allegiance to Islamic State (IS). That, in effect, puts an end to the attempt by IS to establish a South-East Asian outpost of its collapsing caliphate. But it took five months of fighting for the army to regain control of the city. And there is a risk that disaffected Filipino Muslims will redirect their aggression into terrorism and extortion, which have racked the southern island of Mindanao, in particular, for decades.
The day after Mr Hapilon’s death, the government said the battle for Marawi had killed 847 IS fighters, 163 soldiers or policemen and 47 civilians. It has emptied the city and surrounding areas, displacing nearly...Continue reading
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