Eight-hour truce in war-torn Marawi comes to abrupt end

marawi — An eight-hour ceasefire in a Philippine city allowing residents to celebrate the end of holy month of Ramadan came to an abrupt end on Sunday afternoon as the government continued its offensive against militants occupying parts of war-torn Marawi.

Assaults backed by air and artillery bombardment had stopped at the start of Islamic prayers at 6am but gunfire broke out as soon as the truce ended around 2pm, reporters in Marawi said.

Regional military commander Lieutenant General Carlito Galvez said the truce also allowed five Muslim religious leaders to enter ground zero and negotiate with the militants to release civilian hostages, especially children, women and the elderly. “It’s already been more than 30 days (of fighting) and we received reports that some of them have nothing to eat,” Galvez said.

The negotiators on Sunday emerged from the conflict zone with five civilians, incuding a mother and her 16-month-old daughter.

The woman said she had given birth to another child just two weeks ago in the middle of the fighting but her infant boy died due to lack of food, according to police who interviewed her.

A video released by the military showed the rescued residents looking terrified, pale and haggard.

Military chief General Eduardo Ano ordered his forces to observe a “humanitarian pause” during the Eid Al Fitr holiday in Marawi, the most important Muslim city in the mainly Catholic Philippines.

The Eid Al Fitr festival ends the fasting month of Ramadan.

“We declare a lull in our current operations in the city on that day as a manifestation of our high respect to the Islamic faith,” Ano said in a statement.

Hundreds of militants, flying the flag of the Daesh group and backed by foreign fighters, seized swathes of Marawi in the southern region of Mindanao last month, sparking bloody street battles and raising regional concern.

Troops have launched a relentless air and ground offensive but have failed to dislodge 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 centres or to the homes of relatives and friends in other towns. —