MANILA, Philippines - Sprawled on the boarded-up balcony of a two-story house, the barrel of his rifle poked into a hole cut in the wood, an Army sniper calls for quiet before taking his shot.
“Firing,” he says evenly, before the .50 caliber shot rings out, sending tremors through the house. He was firing at a home less than a kilometer away, believed to be a stronghold of Islamist Maute group of militants who have been holed up in Marawi City for over five weeks.
A spotter sat next to him, with his scope set into another hole. The two spoke quietly to each other as the sniper took three more shots across the Agus River into the militant-held commercial district of Marawi, now a battleground strewn with debris from ruined buildings.
Scores of bodies are rotting in the area, and the stench mixes with the smell of gunpowder.
Thousands of soldiers are battling to retake Marawi, where gunmen of the Maute group loyal to Islamic State (IS) launched a lightning strike on May 23.
Southern Philippines has been marred for decades by insurgency and banditry. But the intensity of the battle in Marawi and the presence of foreign fighters from Indonesia, Malaysia, Yemen and Chechnya fighting alongside local militants had raised concerns that the region may be becoming a Southeast Asian hub for IS as it loses ground in Iraq and Syria.
As troops poured in to contain the siege, few were expecting a slow, difficult and unfamiliar urban war.
“We are used to insurgencies... but a deployment of this magnitude, this kind of conflict is a challenge for our troops,” said Lt Col Christopher Tampus, one of the officers commanding ground operations in Marawi.
He said progress in clearing the city has been hindered by militant fire and booby traps like gas tanks rigged with grenades.
Reduced to rubble
After weeks of military airstrikes and shelling, Marawi, a lakeside city of around 200,000 is now a ghost town, the center of which has been reduced to charred rubble and hollow structures. Buildings in the military-controlled areas of the city are still standing but deserted after residents fled.
Authorities estimate around 100 to 120 fighters, some of them as young as 16 years, remain holed up in the commercial district of the city, down from around 500 at the beginning of the siege.
The militants are holding around 100 hostages, according to the military, who have been forced to act as human shields, take up arms or become sex slaves.
Military aircraft drop bombs on the militant zone almost every day. From the outskirts of the city, mortar teams take aim at what they call “ground zero,” the heart of the conflict.
“Mortars are designed to target people and smaller areas than the airstrikes,” said mortar specialist Sgt. Jeffery Baybayan, as he jotted down coordinates that come crackling over a radio from an observer closer to the conflict area.
“Hitting targets accurately can be difficult and we’re expending rounds without hitting targets. We are concerned about our own troops that are very close to the enemy area,” he added, as the mortars exploded in the city, sending up plumes of thick black smoke.
Surrender or die
During the day’s battle, Tampus received reports that three civilians, trapped for weeks near the fighting, were trying to escape.
Several soldiers responded to help rescue them – moving to the area in two lines along the sides of streets to avoid sniper fire.
Three civilians – two men and a woman using a walking stick – came out and sat by the side of the street once they were in the military zone.
“The bombs were so frequent coming from both sides,” said Jose Locanas, a 53-year-old man trapped with his wife and friend in his house. “We were caught in the middle.”
Troops said they received word from their relatives that the three were trapped and managed to escort them out.
More than 400 people, including over 300 militants, 82 security forces and 44 civilians are known to have died in Marawi.
Some of the bodies of civilians were found decapitated and the military has warned the number of residents killed by militant “atrocities” could rise sharply as troops retake more ground.
Every day, troops make announcements through loudspeakers for the militants to “surrender now or die.”
To the trapped civilians, they offer help to get out of the conflict area.
Authorities say they believe the militants are running out of supplies and ammunition, but they say there is no deadline to retake the city.
Tampus said when troops reinforcements come into Marawi, they are initially apprehensive because of the high death toll.
“But once they are here, the discipline kicks in and they are focused,” he said.
Humanitarian crisis
The fighting in Marawi has dragged on for over a month as casualties continue to mount. It created in its wake a worsening humanitarian crisis the government has to deal with.
More than 320,000 people or about 69,000 families have been displaced since the fighting between government forces and the Maute group broke out last May 23.
The Department of Health has recorded five more deaths among the evacuees, including children from conflict areas in Marawi.
Health Secretary Paulyn Ubial said death among Marawi evacuees has increased to 32 as of June 29.
Ubial said eight of the casualties were children who died of diarrhea.
“The last death recorded among the evacuees was last June 25,” she said.
Except for one who died while in transit, Ubial said all of the 31 died in hospitals.
Ubial said the DOH is verifying if the one who died in transit was the nine-month-old infant wrapped in a bed sheet as televised being carried by its father.
The DOH earlier reported 27 deaths among the evacuees staying at various evacuation centers.
The DOH has sent teams of psychologists to counsel the Marawi evacuees, she said.
The Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) is planning to put up temporary shelters for the evacuees.
DILG officer-in-charge Catalino Cuy said temporary shelters and evacuation centers will be erected as soon as the evacuees return to Marawi after the fighting has officially ended.
“We really hope that we can start the rehabilitation efforts very soon so that Marawi residents will be able to pick up the broken pieces of their lives, stand back on their toes again and rebuild their lives,” Cuy said.
Malacañang has ordered shelter agencies to find a way to use their gender and development budgets to provide immediate assistance to the evacuees.
Cabinet Secretary Leoncio Evasco Jr. issued the directive during a meeting of agencies under the Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council (HUDCC) last June 21.
The meeting sought to start discussions on the government’s reconstruction efforts in Marawi.
Evasco has instructed HUDCC shelter agencies to find a way to reallocate up to half of their budgets and all remaining unused funds from previous years to provide for the needs of women in evacuation centers like hygiene kits and psychosocial support services. – Reuters, Alexis Romero, Mayen Jaymalin, Cecille Suerte Felipe, Gerry Lee-Gorit