‘MARAWI MILITANTS FORCE KIDS, HOSTAGES TO FIGHT’
Troops doing their best to avoid killing those forced to take up arms, says military
CHILDREN and hostages are being forced to fight alongside pro-Islamic State gunmen waging a seven-week battle for Marawi, the country’s military said yesterday.
Militants seized the city on May 23 to create an IS province, and more than 100 remain holed up despite intense military efforts to oust them.
Some of the extremists are teenagers who may have been recruited and trained to use guns when they were children, said military spokesman Brigadier-General Restituto Padilla.
“We get disturbing narratives from (escaped residents) that children and hostages are being employed in the firefight,” Padilla said here.
Casualties among children and civilians forced to take up arms could not be ruled out, he added.
“As disturbing as it is, our troops are doing their best to avoid any casualty among these children.
“But in the event... they bear arms and are involved in the fighting, there is nothing much that we can do.”
Shortly after seizing Marawi, gunmen took at least a dozen hostages, including a Catholic priest.
Some of the estimated 300 other civilians trapped in the area may have also been taken captive, said Padilla.
The military earlier said civilians had been forced to help the gunmen by carrying supplies and ammunition, bearing their wounded and even helping them loot the city.
More than 500 people have been killed in the fighting, including 89 soldiers and police, 39 civilians and 379 militants, according to figures released by the government yesterday.
Nearly 400,000 civilians have fled their homes.
The fighting has prompted Duterte to declare martial law over the entire southern Philippines. AFP