AFP presses airstrikes to neutralize sniper positions

MARAWI CITY — The Armed Forces said on Saturday they would continue airstrikes to pound sniper positions to reduce casualties among government forces as they wrap up nearly two months of fighting to liberate Marawi City of Islamic State-inspired gunmen.

Lt. Col. Jo-Ar Herrera, Joint Task Force Marawi spokesperson, said troops needed to clear about 800 buildings and homes of Maute and Abu Sayyaf fighters and booby traps left behind by retreating militants.

“The mission is not yet done, but we can assure that we are very much focused and determined to carry on the fight until peace and order in Mindanao, especially in Marawi, is fully restored, and the liberation of Marawi is achieved,” Herrera said.

He said the “defensive positions” of the gunmen had been identified and were the targets of the airstrikes.

“They are still occupying high-rise buildings,” he said. “We need to take these down so that we could facilitate the offensive of our troops. … If we do not use airstrikes, we will incur more casualties of our troops.”

The gunmen also were still using mosques as logistics and medical facilities, Herrera said. The military has been under orders not to target mosques.

The military has used jet fighters, attack planes and helicopter gunships, armed with bombs and rockets, to attack areas where the gunmen have been holding out.

“One reason we are using air assets … is this is the advantage we need to neutralize the snipers’ positions,” Herrera said. “They occupy high-rise buildings so we have to be higher. So we use airstrikes.”

Zia Alonto Adiong, provincial crisis management committee spokesperson, said officials have been appealing to the military not to use airstrikes against the gunmen.

“We don’t really question the wisdom of our Armed Forces. We just made an appeal because we represent the residents of Marawi City,” Adiong said.

Herrera said the fighting since May 23, when the IS-linked fighters laid siege to Marawi, has killed 366 militants, 39 civilians and 87 soldiers and police.

More than 400,000 residents of the city and nearby areas have fled their homes.

The siege prompted President Duterte to declare martial law in Marawi and the rest of Mindanao.

Herrera said troops were still fighting about 80 gunmen led by Abdullah Maute. The gunmen also hold dozens of hostages in the war zone.

The Maute group, which calls itself Ansar Dawlah Islamiyyah Philippine, has recently warned it would launch another attack.

In a statement released on Facebook by a spokesperson who identified himself as Semion Almujaheed, the group taunted government forces.

“You can’t win and you will never win against us,” he said. “Thousands of young Muslims like us who are more dedicated, skillful and trained are willing to die and sacrifice for Jihad which has been waged since the Spaniard’s colonization and until today we are still fighting for the establishment of an Islamic state, a country ruled by the Sharia/Laws of Allah azza wajal.”

Of their next attack, Almujaheed said, “you will never see it coming.”

He also repeated an earlier IS claim that the attack on Resorts World hotel and casino was carried out by a “shaheed” or martyr.

“As what you have witnessed happened in the heart of your city, Manila Resorts Hotel and Casino. We killed many disbelievers,” Almujaheed said.

The police, however, have identified the lone gunman who set fire to the casino before killing himself was a former gambler who had been banned from Resorts World. —Report from Jeoffrey Maitem, Allan A. Nawal, and Agence France-Presse