Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has threatened to impose martial law nationwide to combat an ongoing armed threat, after fighters beheaded a police officer and took churchgoers hostage, in a violent rampage that forced thousands to flee the southern city of Marawi.
"I will not hesitate to do anything and everything to protect and preserve the Filipino nation," Duterte said on Wednesday after arriving back in Manila from his trip to Russia.
"I might declare martial law throughout the country to protect the people."
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Duterte declared martial law on Tuesday in the southern region of Mindanao – which makes up roughly one third of the country and is home to 20 million people – in an immediate response to the attacks by the fighters, who had pledged allegiance to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS) group.
The military said at least 13 fighters were also killed by the military.
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The roughly 100 fighters roamed through Marawi, killing five soldiers, taking a priest and an unspecified number of other people hostage from a church, setting fire to buildings and flying black ISIL flags, according to Duterte and his aides.
Duterte said the fighters also beheaded a local police chief, after capturing him at a road checkpoint.
The violence first erupted on Tuesday, after the army raided the hideout of Isnilon Hapilon, a commander of the Abu Sayyaf group. Abu Sayyaf fighters then called for reinforcements from an allied group, the Maute, and dozens of gunmen managed to enter Marawi, home to about 200,000 people.
Clashes between security forces and about 100 fighters ensued, leaving at least three members of the security forces dead. The attackers reportedly burned a Catholic church, the city jail, and two schools, as well as occupied the main streets and two bridges leading to the city, located some 816km south of the capital, Manila.
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Archbishop Socrates Villegas, president of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines, said fighters had forced their way into the Marawi Cathedral and seized a priest, 10 worshippers and three church workers.
"They have threatened to kill the hostages if the government forces unleashed against them are not recalled," Villegas said in a statement.
"[The priest] 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 added.
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'I'll be harsh'
The emergency declaration of the military rule in Mindanao took immediate effect and will last for 60 days, according to presidential spokesman Ernesto Abella, who made the announcement on Tuesday from Russia, where Duterte was on a scheduled four-day official visit.
"This is possible on the grounds of the existence of rebellion," Abella said.
After cutting his trip to Russia short, Duterte said he may also declare martial law elsewhere in the Philippines if attacks continue.
He assured the public he will not allow abuses under military rule, even as he repeatedly said he will deal with "terrorism" harshly.
"To those who have experienced martial law, it would not be any different from what president [Ferdinand] Marcos did," Duterte said. "I'll be harsh."
"If it would take a year to do it, if it's over within a month, then I'd be happy," he added.
Duterte had earlier hinted our declaring martial law in Mindanao on May 19, saying, "If I declare martial law in Mindanao, I will solve all that ails the island."
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Steven Rood, of the Asia Foundation, said that there are several restrictions under the country's current post-dictatorship constitution.
"There is a time limit of 60 days, the courts continue to operate, the legislature is still there - so there has been an attempt to soften the effects of martial law," he told Al Jazeera.
"On the other hand, the persisting violence in Mindanao hasn't been soft, and so particularly strong-willed people such as the president often think of something forceful like martial law."
Thousands flee
Al Jazeera's Jamela Alindogan, reporting from Mindanao, said there was an exodus of thousands of residents from Marawi.
"People have been walking for hours to try to escape the violence and get out of a city that was once the most peaceful in southern Philippines," Alindogan said.
Abu Sayyaf and Maute have been blamed for bombings, attacks against government forces and kidnappings in the Philippines. They have also beheaded hostages .
"Please pray for us here," said Mohammad Abedin, president of the Lanao Del Sur Medical Society in Marawi. "We can see houses burning and we don't have electricity now."
