The
Philippine military said on Wednesday it was likely that large numbers of
civilians had been killed during the five-week occupation of a southern town by
Islamist rebels,
due to "atrocities" by the militants allied with
Islamic State.
A toll of 27
Marawi residents killed was only what the authorities could independently
confirm and a "significant number" of dead had been seen by those who
had escaped fighting between insurgents and government forces, said military
spokesman Restituto Padilla.
"The
number you have right now is 27, (it) may increase significantly once we are
able to validate all this information," he told a news conference.
"There
have been a significant number that have been seen but again, we cannot include
many of these."
He said the
cause of those deaths would be "atrocities committed by the
terrorists".
Among those
atrocities, the army says, have been the forcing of residents to loot homes,
take up arms, or become sex slaves.
The military
has been reluctant to discuss the possibility that the real impact of the
fighting on civilians could be far more severe than has been reported.
It has
played down the impact of daily air strikes and mortar assaults aimed at rebel
sniper positions, which have reduced areas of the lakeside town to rubble and
alarmed people stuck there, some of whom have said the shelling was a bigger
threat than the militants.
Disaster officials
are keen to start dangerous missions to recover what they believe are large
numbers of bodies in the streets near the conflict zone.
LONG HOLD
The battle
for Marawi entered its 36th day on Wednesday, with intense gunfights and
bombing in the heart of the town and black-clad fighters seen from afar running
between buildings as explosions rang out.
Marawi is
the only city in the Christian-majority Philippines that the government has
decreed to be "Islamic", because of its large population of Muslims.
The rebels'
hold on it, while incurring the full force of a military for years trained by
its United States counterparts, has much of the region on edge, concerned that
Islamic State's influence may run deeper than thought.
Those fears
are being felt also in Malaysia and Indonesia, whose nationals are among the
Maute group rebels fighting in Marawi, suggesting the group may have built a
cross-border network that has gone largely undetected.
President
Rodrigo Duterte on Tuesday said that from the outset, he was prepared for a
long fight with a well-armed Maute motivated only by murder and destruction.
"It
seems to be limitless supply. They were able to stockpile their arms," he
said.
"Some
of those who traveled to the Middle East got contaminated, brought the ideology
back home and promised to declare war against humanity."
Military
spokesman Padilla said authorities recognized that people in evacuation centers
were getting weary, but troops needed more time to flush out the gunmen and
secure the city.
"Our
combat environment is sensitive. First, there are trapped civilians that we
have to protect. They also have hostages and third, there are many traps so we
have to clear buildings slowly," he said.
Some 71
security forces and 299 militants have since been killed and 246,000 people
displaced in the conflict, which erupted after a failed May 23 attempt to
arrest a Filipino militant commander backed by Islamic State's leadership.
For graphic
on battle of Marawi, click: tmsnrt.rs/2sqmHDf
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