The Philippine government has set a deadline to defeat ISIL-related militants in Marawi by Thursday this week, according to the country's Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana.

In a text message to reporters on Monday, Lorenzana said government forces were determined to clear the southern Philippine city on Mindanao Island of the remnants of Maute militants, who tried to occupy the city on May 23 as part of their efforts to establish a caliphate.

A government soldier searches for militants in the Maute stronghold in Marawi City in southern Philippines on May 29, 2017. /VCG Photo

The government's target is to drive out the militants within "one week from May 25," he said, adding that government forces "are on track" in meeting the June 1 deadline.

The Philippine military is capable of conducting "surgical air strikes" to defeat the militants, Brig. Gen. Resituto Padilla, spokesman for the Armed Forces of the Philippines, said at a press conference on Monday.

2,000 civilians trapped in conflict

Zia Alonto Adiong, spokesman for the crisis management committee of Lanao Del Sur Province, told AFP that about 2,000 local residents were trapped in the areas controlled by the militants. "They are texting us and calling us for help," he said.

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) warned that those trapped were dying from extreme conditions and stray bullets.

"When our colleagues speak to them on phone calls, we hear that the situation is very difficult. Food is running out, water is running out, they don't have electricity," Martin Thalmann, Deputy Head of the ICRC's Philippine delegation who is in Marawi, told AFP.

Residents and commuters queue up at a police checkpoint at the entrance to Iligan City on the southern Philippine island of Mindanao on May 29, 2017, after local authorities locked down the city due to a terror threat. /VCG Photo

Among Marawi's more than 200,000 residents, many have fled to nearby Iligan City since the start of the conflict last Tuesday.

The conflict has displaced more than 17,000 families or nearly 85,000 residents, according to Myrna Jo Henry, an information officer at the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao's Humanitarian Emergency Action and Response Team.

Anti-government groups say they oppose extremists

The Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) and the New People's Army (NPA), two major anti-government groups in the Southeast Asian country, said they opposed the militants on Monday, but gave no indication whether they would fight alongside government forces.

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte appealed to various anti-government forces to become "soldiers of the Republic" and unite to defeat Abu Sayyaf rebels and the Maute group on Saturday.

"All terror groups are opposed by the CPP and the NPA," Luis Jalandoni, chief negotiator of the National Democratic Front (NDF) that represents the CPP and the NPA, told Dutch broadcaster ANC.

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte talks to government soldiers during his visit to Camp Teodulfo Bautista in Jolo, Sulu, the Philippines on May 27, 2017. /VCG Photo

"In that sense, the CPP and the NPA would be together with the Duterte government in opposing the Maute group and the Abu Sayyaf," Jalandoni added.

He did not say whether they would accept Duterte's offer to give the anti-government troops the same pay and benefits as government troops and build houses for them if they joined Manila's military campaign to defeat the militants.

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