Manila: Three hardline Filipino militant leaders are still alive and in command of a smaller territory in a city their groups took over on May 23, sources said.

Contrary to earlier military reports, Isnilon Hapilon of the hardline Islamist Abu Sayyaf group, and brothers Omar and Abdullah Maute, of the Maute extremist group, are still manning their respective war zones in two of 96 villages in Marawi City, a military intelligence official told Gulf News.

Abu Sayyaf’s turf is in Sulu and Basilan, in the southernmost part of Mindanao.

The Maute group hails from Butig, Marawi City.

Government soldiers failed to issue a warrant of arrest for Hapilon when he was being elected as head of an Daesh-sponsored group in an apartment in Marawi City on May 23, the source said.

Hapilon and the Maute brothers were supported by members of the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF), the Ansarul Khalifa Philippines and several foreign militants in taking over Marawi City.

At least eight foreigners died in clashes between Philippine government forces and the Daesh-inspired Filipino-Islamist terror groups, the military said.

President Rodrigo Duterte has offered a P10 million (Dh833,333) reward for Hapilon’s head; and P5 million (Dh416,666) each for the Maute brothers.

Before the crisis in Marawi City, the United States’ State Department had already offered $5 million for Hapilon’s arrest and information on his whereabouts.

The District of Columbia had indicted him for alleged involvement in terrorist acts against American and other foreign nations, including the Philippines.

Meanwhile, Philippine military leaders have rejected the US offer to stop with air strikes the belligerent Filipino-Muslim terror leaders in Marawi City.

Direct military action by the US is allowed only during actual invasion of the Philippines by another state, explained Philippine Armed Forces Chief of Staff Eduardo Año.

Civilians have expressed concern that US-assisted air strikes may damage more properties in the war-ravaged city, Marawi City’s Provincial Crisis Management Committee said.

“The Armed Forces of the Philippines is capable. We have enough ammunition and troops. Our troops can finish their mission in Marawi City,” explained Col. Romeo Brawner, Deputy Task Group Commander of Joint Task Group Ranao, adding, “The employment of foreign troops in our war-zones is against our Constitution. US forces in Philippine military operations are limited to extending technical, educational and training support.”

“Based on the exchange of fires between government forces and the Filipino-Muslim terror groups, the latter seemed to have weakened. Maybe their logistical supply went down. They have no more resources,” said Joint Task Force Marawi spokesperson Capt. Jo-Ann Petinglay, adding that clashes have been restricted within a square kilometre of conflict zone.

Some 539 terror suspects, 122 soldiers, and more than 40 civilians were killed in Marawi clashes since May 23.

Philippine congress has extended President Duterte’s May 23 declaration of a 60-day martial law in the whole of Mindanao up to the end of 2017.