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everal Indonesian nationals are suspected of having participated in an attempt by militants linked to the Islamic State (IS) movement to take a city in the southern Philippines.

Malaysians, Indonesians and other foreigners were among the guerrillas killed on Thursday as clashes continued between the terrorist group and government troops, which the government said demonstrated how the Philippines could become a haven for overseas militants, Reuters
reported.

Foreign Ministry spokesperson Arrmanatha Nasir said the government had received information about the discovery of an Indonesian passport during a raid following an outbreak of violence in Marawi, in Mindanao, but was unable to verify its authenticity until Indonesian authorities had possession of the document.

“We have received word about the discovery of an Indonesian passport belonging to a [suspected terrorist] in Marawi, but this remains to be verified,” Arrmanatha said on Friday.

“The passport is still in the hands of the Philippine authorities, so we will have to wait until they issue an official statement.”

The spokesman also gave an assurance that all 17 Indonesian citizens residing in the area were safe and sound.

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte appealed to Islamist militants on Friday to abandon hostilities and start dialogue in an effort to end their bloody occupation of a southern city that experts called a major blow to regional security, Reuters reported.

Duterte said the presence of foreign fighters in street battles that have raged since Tuesday in Marawi was proof that IS had gained a foothold on the restive island of Mindanao, but there was still a chance for peace.

“You can say that ISIS is here already,” Duterte told soldiers in nearby Iligan, referring to IS.

“My message mainly to the terrorists on the other side is we can still solve this through dialogue. And if you cannot be convinced to stop fighting, so be it. Let’s just fight,” he said as quoted
by Reuters.

Special forces commandos were deployed to drive out the remaining 20 to 30 rebels belonging to the Maute group holed-up in Marawi but encountered heavy resistance on Friday. The army said 11 soldiers and 31 militants had been killed.

Fighting erupted on Tuesday after a bungled raid by security forces on a Maute hideout, which spiraled into chaos, with gunmen seizing bridges, roads and buildings and taking Christians hostage. Duterte responded by declaring martial law throughout his native island of Mindanao.

Rohan Gunaratna, a Singapore-based security expert, said the siege was a wake-up call for the Philippines.

“[IS] capturing a major city in the Philippines is a very significant blow to the security and stability of this region,” he said as quoted by Reuters.

“The Filipinos need to get their act together [...] They must understand the truth that IS ideology has taken hold in their country. The local groups have transformed.”

The United States on Thursday said it backed the Philippine fight against “cowardly terrorists.”

Duterte has warned of “contamination” by IS, exploiting the poverty, lawlessness and porous borders of predominantly Muslim Mindanao to establish a base for radicals from Southeast Asia and beyond.

He has pleaded with political and Islamic leaders to keep foreign and local militants at bay. Months of air and ground offensives in Mindanao have not dented their resolve.

“What’s happening in Mindanao is no longer a rebellion of Filipino citizens,” Solicitor General Jose Calida told reporters in explaining why martial law was
imposed.

“It has transmogrified into an invasion by foreign terrorists, who heeded the call of [IS] to go to the Philippines if they find difficulty in going to Iraq and Syria.”

Most of Marawi’s 200,000 inhabitants fled after the gunmen ran amok on Tuesday, seizing and torching buildings, freeing militants from jails and taking a priest and churchgoers hostage at the city’s cathedral.

Duterte has dealt with separatist unrest during his 22 years as mayor in Mindanao, but the Maute’s rise and signs that it has ties to another group, the Abu Sayyaf, present one of the biggest challenges to a presidency won on promises to fight drugs and
lawlessness.

Philippine intelligence indicates the two groups from different parts of Mindanao are connected, through Isnilon Hapilon, the leader of a radical faction of Abu Sayyaf.

Abu Sayyaf has a track record of banditry, piracy and violence, while the lesser-known Maute group has proven itself a fierce battlefield opponent for the military, able to sustain air and artillery bombardments and regroup after heavy losses.

Hapilon was the target of Tuesday’s botched raid as Duterte said IS in the Middle East had anointed the former as its man in the Philippines.

Military chief Gen. Eduardo Ano said the fierce resistance by the Maute in Marawi was to protect Hapilon, who was in poor condition after being wounded in a January air strike.

“If we capture him, all the better. But if he fights back we have to do what is necessary,” he told reporters.

Convoys of vehicles packed with evacuees and protected by soldiers streamed into Iligan. Mark Angelou Siega, a Christian, described how students fled their campus.

“We were so scared and so were our Muslim brothers and sisters. We were sure they would get to us,” he said.

“These terrorists are not real Muslims.”

Calida said the Maute group and IS were radicalizing young Muslims and the government was not the only target of their aggression.

“People they consider as infidels, whether Christians or Muslims, are also targets,” he said.

Meanwhile, Indonesia’s Coordinating Political, Legal and Security Affairs Minister Wiranto said that since the IS militants were pushed back from their Syrian bases, they had decided to deploy well-trained terrorists to establish a base in Asia.

Wiranto said that during a recent meeting with Australian Attorney General George Brandis, the two countries had agreed to bolster cooperation in order to fight the militants’ plan to establish a base in Southeast Asia.

“We want to engage other countries, such as New Zealand, Malaysia, Brunei Darussalam, and the Philippines, to focus on eradicating terrorism in the southern Philippines,” Wiranto said after a ministerial meeting discussing terrorism on Friday.