Militants linked to Islamic State abducted a Catholic priest and 13 parishioners while laying siege to a city in the Philippines on Tuesday night.
Guerrillas from the Islamist ‘Maute’ group seized parts of the predominantly Muslim city of Marawi, in the Mindanao region, on 23 May in retaliation for a botched raid by Filipino security forces on one of the rebel group’s hideouts.
Archbishop Socrates Villegas, president of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines, said the militants forced their way into the Marawi’s Cathedral and seized a priest, 10 members of the congregation and three church workers during the siege.
“The priest, Father Chito, and the others had no role in the conflict,” Villegas said in a statement released on Wednesday (24 May).
"He was not a combatant. He was not bearing arms. He was a threat to none. His capture and that of his companions violates every norm of civilised conflict," he continued.
Villegas says the Maute gunmen are demanding that the government recall its forces, which have since been deployed in Marawi.
"We beg every Filipino to pray fervently for Father Chito and for other hostages," concluded the statement.
Two soldiers and a police officer are among those killed and at least 12 people have been wounded in the violence. Maute fighters also set fire to a school, a church and a prison.
Filipino armed forces have said the situation is now under control but residents who fled told a different story, saying Marawi is in the hands of the rebels, who had allowed civilians to leave.
"The city is still under the control of the armed group. They are all over the main roads and two bridges leading to Marawi," a student fleeing the city told Reuters.
A photograph from one resident showed the black flag used as a symbol by Islamic State flying in Marawi, reports the Independent.
President Rodrigo Duterte abandoned a trip to Russia in order to deal with the crisis and announced that he will impose martial law across Mindanao in order to prevent a "contamination" by Islamist extremists in the region.
“To my countrymen who have experienced martial law, it would not be any different from what President Marcos did. I'd be harsh,” he said in a video recorded on his return flight from Moscow on 23 May, referring to the 1970s rule of late dictator Ferdinand Marcos.
“If it would take a year to do it then we'll do it. If it's over with a month, then I'd be happy. To my countrymen, do not be too scared. I'm going home. I will deal with the problem once I arrive,” he said.
Tuesday's (23 May) failed raid was aimed at capturing Isnilon Hapilon, a leader of the Abu Sayyaf group notorious for piracy, banditry and for kidnapping and beheading Westerners. He is wanted by the United States.
The Maute and Abu Sayyaf groups have pledged allegiance to Islamic State. The Islamist group first surfaced in 2013 when they bombed a nightclub in Cagayan de Oro, a mainly Christian city in a neighbouring province, killing six people. In September 2016, they targeted a street market in the president's hometown of Davao City. Fourteen people were killed and many more wounded. The group was blamed for a foiled bomb attempt near the United States embassy in Manila last November.
The group is named after its leaders, the Maute brothers, both Filipinos with extensive ties to the Middle East, according to the military.
PICTURE: Members of the Philippine National Police-Special Action Force have been deployed to the Mindanao following President Rodrigo Duterte's declaration that he is placing the region under martial law
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