‘300 hostages still held in Marawi mosque’

MANILA, Philippines - Around 300 civilian hostages are still being held in a mosque in Marawi City almost two months since the fighting between government forces and the Islamic State-linked Maute group started, President Duterte bared yesterday.

In a speech at the Davao Business Forum last night, the President said there is a big tunnel under the mosque, where the remnants of the Maute group have been keeping the residents whom they have taken hostage since the siege started on May 23. 

Duterte has instructed the military not to attack or assault the position of the 300 hostages.

“We’ll just have to wait it out. I told them, ‘do not attack’. You can shoot each other out but if you assault them and they start to behead people there… it’s not important to me if they are Moros, Christians or Vietnamese. What’s important is we do not want to kill people,” the President told the 300 participants of the conference held at the SMS Convention Center in SM Lanang Premiere.

“That’s 300 people, that’s 300 lives. If we have to wait for one year, let us wait for one year. But I said, give them food because there are people hungry there. Not bullet, just food. Anyway, they are there as prisoners of the other side.

“Fundamentally, it is peaceful. The fight in Marawi would soon be over. The one thing that is stopping us now, is the mosque, it’s a big one. It has underground tunnels but not so much about that – they have 300 hostages,” he added.

When Duterte visited the soldiers in Marawi City on Thursday, government forces cleared at least 16 buildings utilized by local terrorists linked to Islamic State and took down six snipers.

The military also captured back Mapandi bridge, one of the strongholds of the Dawlah Islamiyah, a terror cell mainly composed of the Maute and the Abu Sayyaf faction of Isnilon Hapilon.

Brig. Gen. Rolando Joselito Bautista, commander of the Joint Task Force Marawi, reported the captured positions during the visit of Duterte.

Bautista said the troops also recovered nine firearms, including an M60 machine gun, grenade launcher, an M14 sniper rifle and two M4 assault carbine rifles.

During clearing operations, soldiers and policemen were able to recover the remains of militants and recorded six snipers killed. The terrorist snipers were positioned in buildings and mosques.

The fresh casualty counts brought the total number of terrorists killed to 427 while government forces have lost 99 soldiers as fighting continues in Marawi since clashes started last May 23.

Heavy fighting resumed before midnight Wednesday as ground forces advanced toward the main battleground in the city’s central business district. The military said the number of terrorists decreased to 60 from as high as 500 to 700 when they attacked Marawi.

Duterte assured troops in Marawi City anew that he is one with them in the fight against terrorism, and justified his call on Congress to extend martial rule in Mindanao until yearend. - With Edith Regalado, Christina Mendez, Roel Pareño, Jaime Laude