Skeletal remains, bomb found in Marawi mosque anew

Soldiers patrol the streets near the heavily damaged Bato Ali Mosque in Marawi City after the military defeated Islamic State-linked groups that laid siege to the Lanao del Sur capital in 2017. INQUIRER MINDANAO FILE PHOTO / RICHEL V. UMEL

MARAWI CITY –– Debris-clearing workers found skeletal remains near the devastated Bato Ali Mosque here on Tuesday afternoon.

It was in this mosque where fierce fighting took place during the five-month siege of the city by Islamic State militants in 2017.

Assistant Secretary Felix Castro Jr., Task Force Bangon Marawi Field Office Manager, said the remains were composed of a skull and other human body parts.

Personnel of Eddmari Construction and Trading, the government contractor for debris-clearing of buildings that will not be demolished, found the skeletal remains.

The remains were brought to the Eddmari compound, where they were expected to undergo a police forensics examination.

Afterward, they will be buried at a marked grave in the Maqbarra public cemetery in the village of Papandayan.

Bato Ali Mosque was one of the strongholds of the IS terrorists during the siege.

On October 17, the city will commemorate the second year after President Duterte declared Marawi liberated from IS control.

That was the day after government troops killed terrorist leaders Isnilon Hapilon and Omar Maute.

On Tuesday, Oct. 15, debris-clearing workers found the lid of a 105-mm artillery on the second floor of a multi-story building.

Roderick Ibañez, the government’s chief overseer for debris-clearing, said this indicates the remaining challenge of further sweeping the last few sites of remnants of surface bombs.

Ibañez also revealed that they found another 260-pound bomb on Tuesday, the 10th explosive, dropped by Air Force planes during the war, to be found since March./lzb