Emissaries, Maute meet during truce

MARAWI CITY – Emissaries met yesterday with a leader of a terror group loyal to Islamic State, officials said, taking advantage of a short truce in a battle over Marawi.

The eight Muslim leaders entered the conflict zone in the heart of the city alongside rescue teams. It was not immedi- ately clear what was discussed with Abdullah Maute, one of two brothers in charge of the group named after them.

Ret. Gen. Dickson Hermoso, who coordinates efforts to free trapped civilians, said a unilateral eight-hour truce by the military to mark Eid’l Fitr was

extended to enable the talks, details of which he withheld to avoid jeopardizing chances for dialogue.

“We need to balance this because this is very precarious,” Hermoso told reporters.

He said the Maute group released some women and children yesterday and the emissaries had come under fire briefly from rebel snipers.

“We have only established a foothold with the Maute,” he said. “We hope both sides will again grant us the respite.”

The military last Saturday said Abdullah Maute had fled from the town and was no longer in the fight. Though they have no solid evidence, the authorities believe his brother, Omarkhayam, was among three of the seven Maute brothers killed.

A source familiar with the meeting said the emissaries were from Marawi and were only granted access to Maute because they were of the same Maranao clan.

Fighting between government forces and Islamist rebels holed up in Marawi City immediately resumed after the eight-hour ceasefire that allowed residents to celebrate the end of Ramadan.

The military enforced a temporary truce to mark the Eid’l Fitr Islamic holiday where air assaults and artillery bombardment stopped at the start of Islamic prayers at 6 a.m. Gunfire erupted as soon as the truce ended around 2 p.m. yesterday.

Small skirmishes took place earlier in the day in parts of Marawi City, where Islamic State-inspired Maute group of extremists were clinging on for a fifth week, as rebel snipers fired on positions held by troops who held on to the ceasefire until early in the afternoon.

Muslims attended prayers at a mosque in Marawi in an emotional gathering marred by the violence that has displaced some 246,000 people and killed more than 350, most of them rebels, and about 69 members of the security forces.

“This (Eid) is memorable because we are celebrating it away from our homes,” Marawi Mayor Majul Usman Gandamrahe said.

“We are hoping that this problem will soon be over... I urge everybody to continue praying so that the turmoil in our city of Marawi will end,” he said.

“This is supposed to be a day of happiness,” said Imam Aleem Ansari Abdul Malik, who led yesterday’s prayers in the city.

“Families should be together but they were torn apart by violence, some lost their loved ones and thousands are in evacuation centers.”

He reminded Muslims to shun the advances of radical groups.

“This is just a small fire, do not allow the flames to get bigger by joining extremists,” he said.

Hundreds of Maute militants, flying the black flag of the Islamic State (IS) and backed by foreign fighters, seized swathes of Marawi City last month, sparking bloody street battles and raising regional concern.

The fighting prompted President Duterte to declare martial law across Mindanao in the bid to contain the Islamic militants who wanted to carve out a caliphate in the region.

Troops have launched a relentless air and ground offensive but failed to dislodge the Maute gunmen from entrenched positions in pockets of the city.

Much of the lakeside city is now in ruins while most of its 200,000 residents have fled to evacuation centers or to the homes of relatives and friends in other towns.

In nearby Iligan City, evacuees dressed in colorful flowing robes marked the end of Ramadan by holding prayers on the grounds of city hall.

Armed commandos from the police Special Action Force stood guard as the prayers were held.

Presidential spokesman Ernesto Abella said yesterday a Philippine Navy ship was sent to Cotabato City to bring supplies for soldiers involved in the fighting and serve as a floating hospital for the wounded.

Troops from Army’s 7th Infantry Division based in Fort Magsaysay in Laur, Nueva Ecija were deployed to augment government forces fighting the Maute terrorists in Marawi.

Collateral damage

Twenty-six civilians have been killed but officials believe scores of bodies of residents may still be in the heart of a conflict zone battered for weeks by air strikes and artillery bombardments.

Lt. Col. Jo-Ar Herrera, spokesman for the military’s Task Force Marawi, said they are validating reports that the Maute group are forcing hostages to pick up bombs within the battle zone.

“We have reports on the ground that hostages are being used as human shields. They are using the hostages to pick up explosives as part of their manpower. These are all the things that we have to verify. This is really a violation of the rights of these hostages,” Herrera told a news conference in Marawi.

Herrera added they have also received reports of several hostages executed by the Maute gunmen.

“These are all unverified. We want to collate evidence-based results,” he stressed.

The military has yet to determine the actual number of people being held hostage by the militants.

Among them was Fr. Chito Suganob, who was kidnapped along with several parishioners on May 23, when the siege began.

The military has confirmed that 26 civilians have been killed in the clashes, either caught in the crossfire or executed by the militants. Padilla said around 500 civilians remain trapped in areas where the fighting is concentrated.

After the ceasefire ends “we will continue to try to enter the areas occupied by them and liberate Marawi,” Padilla said on radio station dzBB.

Nearly 300 militants and 67 troops have been killed in the fighting, according to official figures.

Lt. Col. Emmanuel Garcia, head of civil-military operations in Western Mindanao, said Saturday there were “strong indications” that three of seven brothers of the Maute family had been killed, as had a top Malaysian operative, Mahmud Ahmad, belived to be key to the group’s fundraising.

However, Garcia told reporters concrete evidence was still lacking. He said Abdullah Maute and Abu Sayyaf Isnilon Hapilon, the IS anointed “emir” of Southeast Asia were no longer calling the shots in Marawi.

“Based on intelligence information on the ground, they have evacuated their top leadership from the city’s commercial center due to intense bombings and artillery shelling,” he said.