‘Terrorists hiding in Marawi mosques’

LANAO DEL SUR, Philippines  – Gunmen of the terrorist Maute group are using mosques in Marawi City to provoke airstrikes from the military, officials said yesterday.

Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) Gov. Mujiv Hataman said two old and historic mosques in the city are being used as shelters by the Mautes.

ARMM assemblyman Zia Alonto Adiong said the Maute gunmen are provoking the military to bomb the mosques to trigger an Islamic outcry and sympathy for their cause.

“We must not forget that they attacked and vandalized the St. Mary’s Church in Marawi City to cause friction among Christians and Muslims. We are thankful to Mindanao’s Christian communities for being sober and for not responding the way these terrorists had wanted them to react,” Hataman said.

Adiong, spokesman for the Lanao del Sur provincial crisis management committee, said the two worship sites being occupied by Maute and Abu Sayyaf gunmen are the Bato Islamic Mosque and the Lanao Mindanao Al-Islamic Center.

“How can you call yourself a Muslim if you destroy sites like this? Islam teaches preservation of anything with good educational value from where the youth can learn something good,” Adiong said.

Hataman added that while he wants Marawi City cleared of terrorists, prudence must be exercised in forcing them out from the two mosques.

“The terrorists really wanted the military to bomb the mosques to gain sympathy and for moderate Muslims to get angry. They want to create the impression that there is persecution of Muslims in Mindanao. Well, there is none,” Hataman said.

The military earlier denied allegations of targeting mosques in the city to flush out the Maute snipers pinning down the government troops.

Armed Forces of the Philippines’ Public Affairs Office chief Col. Edgard Arevalo said the military has other options to flush out the militants from their hiding places but not to bomb mosques or other places of worship.

With bomb-proof tunnels, anti-tank weapons hidden in mosques, human shields and mastery of the terrain, the Maute militants holed up in Marawi City are proving a far tougher opponent than the military expected.

Three weeks after gunmen waving black flags of the Islamic State (IS) rampaged through Marawi, initial assertions from authorities that the conflict would be over in days have given way to warnings of a protracted battle.

The military admitted the militants had the advantage in their mastery of the terrain and surroundings.

Officials said the militants had vantage point of observing where the government forces are coming from and where they are taking cover. The Maute militants have snipers and their positions such as in mosques are well defended, they said.