Five-month battle with IS ends in Philippine city: Defence secretary

CLARK: A five-month battle against Islamic Statesupporters in the southern Philippines that claimed more than 1,000 lives has ended, the nation's defence secretary said on Monday. "We now announce the termination of all combat operations in Marawi," Defence Secretary Delfin Lorenzana told reporters on the sidelines of a regional security meeting in Clark, a northern Philippine city. Lorenzana said there were no more militants, known locally as coming from the Maute group, providing resistance following an intense final battle after which 42 bodies were recovered.

"Those are the last group of stragglers of Mautes and they were caught in one building and so there was a firefight so they were finished," he said "All terrorists, fighting troops. All hostages have been recovered." Hundreds of gunmen who had pledged allegiance to IS rampaged through Marawi, the Islamic capital of the mainly Catholic Philippines, on May 23, then took over parts of the city using civilians as human shields.