ISIS Jihadists Storm Cathedral, Capture Priest and a Dozen Christians

Muslim extremists abducted a Catholic priest and more than a dozen churchgoers after laying siege to the southern Philippine city of Marawi overnight, officials said Wednesday.

Gunmen took the Christians hostage after storming a cathedral in the southern city in the Philippines island of Mindanao.

Archbishop Socrates Villegas, president of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines, said that gunmen forced their way into a cathedral in Marawi city and seized the Rev. Chito Suganob and more than a dozen churchgoers and staff as fighting raged between government troops and Muslim militants.

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has placed 22 million people under military rule because of the threat from ISIS-linked jihadists.

"I have a serious problem in Mindanao and the ISIS footprints are everywhere," the president said.
   
On Tuesday night, the extremists took over buildings, ambushed soldiers and put up Islamic State flags as they took over streets and bridges.

Baffled by the jihadists' motives, Archbishop Villegas said neither the kidnapped priest nor the churchgoers had any role in the conflict.

"He 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 civilized conflict," said Villegas, who serves as president of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines.
    
The incident took place after the Philippine Army was completing an operation to capture Isnilon Hapilon, commander of the ISIS-linked Abu Sayyaf group.

Hapilon is currently on Washington's list of most-wanted terrorists. The U.S. has offered a bounty of $5 million for his arrest.