Thousands of people have been caught up in a brutal new ISIS battleground on Australia’s doorstep. One of them was ABC correspondent Adam Harvey, who took a bullet to the neck. This is his story, and theirs.
Suddenly, somehow, a country loses an entire city. ISIS militants swarm through Marawi, in the Philippines island of Mindanao, all but emptying it of more than 200,000 people.
For Harvey, this story is personal. There’s the hurried patch-up by brave medical staff as a gun battle rages metres away; the dash to safety; the delicate surgery to remove a deeply embedded M16 bullet; and the emotional reunion with family.
For Foreign Correspondent, he now gives the full account of his own dramatic escape alongside producer Geoff Thompson and cameraman Phil Hemingway, and of the plight of the thousands fleeing ISIS in Marawi.
Marawi’s fall stunned Philippine authorities and neighbouring countries. So how did it happen? Harvey traces how rival groups of extremist secessionists teamed under the ISIS banner and the spell of two charismatic local brothers. Their planning and execution were meticulous.
The fear now is that Marawi may become a beacon for extremists, like Syria and Iraq, where fighters are blooded to spread terror abroad.