MOSCOW (Sputnik) – Philipinnes’ President Rodrigo Duterte said that the 100-day confrontation between the government forces and the groups affiliated with Daesh (banned in Russia) in the country’s southern city of Marawi was approaching its end, local media reported Wednesday.
"I do not think that the siege in Marawi would be the beginning and the end. It has begun in Sulu many years ago and the number of times that we were humiliated as a country," Duterte said, as quoted by the Philippine Star newspaper, stressing that the counterterror operation was at "the final stages."
"I am looking for money and I want the Philippine National Police to as soon as possible recruit and organize about five to seven battalions of [Special Action Force] trained," Duterte specified.
The so-called Marawi siege started on May 23, when Philippine security forces stormed the city seeking to prevent two Daesh-affiliated groups from meeting, which sparked up a full-scale armed conflict. On May 25, Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte declared martial law on the southern island of Mindanao, which is often subjected to attacks by Daesh-linked terror groups.
