By Genalyn D. Kabiling
The military is honing its urban warfare skills in case another terror siege similar to that of Marawi City erupts anywhere in the country.
Col. Romeo Brawner, deputy commander of Joint Task Force Ranao, said the military has started to rewrite its doctrines and retrain government troops to enhance urban warfare capability.
“From our experience from the Marawi siege, we are preparing for another urban warfare. In the eventuality that something similar to Marawi City happens, we should be ready,” Brawner said during a Palace news conference.
“So from the lessons that we learned, we are now rewriting our doctrines. We are now reorganizing our units. We are reequipping and retraining. From the side of the Armed Forces, handa kami for another Marawi siege whether it happens in Marawi or elsewhere,” he added.
Brawner appealed to groups, including the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, to cooperate with government efforts to combat terrorism and violent extremism.
“We are banking on the MILF to help us with this. They said they do not believe in violent extremism so we hope we’ll work together in the advocacy against violent extremism, terrorism, and radicalism,” he said.
In May last year, President Duterte placed Mindanao under martial law after Islamic State-linked militants launched a deadly siege in Marawi.
Duterte declared the liberation of Marawi after five months of fighting that left hundreds of people dead and the city in ruins. Martial law was declared and has been further extended until the end of this year to thwart lingering security threats.
