Marawi terrorists use looted coins as shrapnel in IEDs – AFP
The Armed Forces now know why coins, nails and bolts were among those recovered from the wound of soldiers injured in the main battle area in Marawi city.
Lt. Col. Emmanuel Garcia, the 4th Civil Relations Group-CRS Commander said the Daesh-inspired Maute Group terrorists have been using coins and other kinds of metals as shrapnel in making improvised explosive device (IEDs).
"In previous incidents, we are wondering why some wounded (government forces) have coins in their wounds. Ito pala yun (this is it),"
Garcia said.
"Now we have established that they have been using coins as shrapnel," he added.
On Friday, the AFP Joint Task Force Marawi showed an undated aerial footage of Maute/Abu Sayyaf terrorists looting from structures in the main battle area (MBA) in Marawi. The video showed items like boxes and sacks being taken from a residential building.
Army Colonel Romeo Brawner, the Deputy Commander of Task Force Ranao, said the video reinforced the revelation of rescued hostages that the terrorists looted from houses inside the main battle field amid the gunfight.
Brawner said aside from the video footage, they likewise recovered six sacks filled with a third of coins.
"This (video) is undated and the exact location is still being studied with the help of local officials," he added.
Garcia said the recovered coins were part of the loot of the terrorists but cannot say where it was from.
"Obviously, they can’t take the coins so they put them to other use," Garcia said, referring to the shrapnel.
On Thursday, government troops also recovered four ATM machines taken from a Landbank branch. The money vaults have been formally turned over to the security manager of the bank Friday.
On the third week of fighting in Marawi, Marine 1st Lt. John Frederick Savellano and his team were able to recover P52 million cash and P27 million in cheques from a Maute/ASG machine gun position.
Former hostages said they were ordered to loot houses and were given daily looting schedules. Among the items they took from houses they ransacked were firearms, ammunition, money, jewelry and other important items.
"If they were able to pillage, loot, collect, gather coins, then it is not farfetched that they were also able to get, loot, pillage, collect money in other denominations, say from P20 to P1,000 pesos in large amounts. Some terrorists were even hiding inside the main vault of Landbank during airstrikes. The question now is, what did they do with the items inside?," Garcia asked.