Philippines troops thwarted an original plan drawn up by the militants now holed up in Marawi City to "spread terror" in a rampage of violence that would have given them full control of the southern town, the military said on Wednesday. "There was indeed a bigger plan and it was supposed to wreak more havoc," military spokesman Restituto Padilla told a news conference as aerial bombing resumed against fighters who have sworn allegiance to Daesh (the so-called IS). Philippine senators said members of the upper house were last week shown a video of the militants, led by a group known as Maute, plotting a far more sophisticated siege of Marawi City than the attack they launched there on May 23. "It was clear that these terrorists, the Maute group, their end goal is to make Marawi ... independent, or to separate from the republic," Senator JV Ejercito said. "With a plan like this, this is already rebellion and a threat to national security, so declaration of martial law is justified," he said, referring to the martial law declared by President Rodrigo Duterte across the southern island of Mindanao when the siege began. The battle for Marawi City has raised concern that Daesh, on a back foot in Syria and Iraq, is building a regional base on Mindanao that could pose a threat to neighboring Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore too. Officials said that, among the several hundred militants who seized the town, there were about 40 foreigners from different countries. The military has said that the fighters are increasingly penned in around a built-up area of the town, and troops have been clearing houses that the militants had defended with snipers for the past two weeks. — Reuters The fighters prepared for a long siege, stockpiling arms and food in tunnels, basements, mosques and madrasas, or Islamic religious schools, military officials say. The Philippines is largely Christian, but Marawi City is overwhelmingly Muslim. Progress in the military campaign has been slow because hundreds of civilians are still trapped or being held hostage, some as human shields, the military said. A Catholic priest and about a dozen of his parishioners were taken on the first day of the battle by militants who burst into the town's cathedral and set it alight. Military spokesman Padilla appealed to social media users not to circulate material, such as the razing of the church, that may fan religious tensions. "Let us not buy into the plan of these terror groups to inflame the feelings of our other religions," he said. "This is not a religious war." A four-hour ceasefire to evacuate residents trapped in the town was interrupted by gunfire on Sunday, leaving some 500 to 600 inside with dwindling supplies of food and water. Officials say that 1,545 civilians have been rescued. — Reuters
