Philippine Military Says 17 Mutilated Civilian Bodies Found in Marawi
By FELIPE VILLAMORJUNE 28, 2017
MANILA — The Philippine military said on Wednesday
that troops had found the mutilated bodies of 17 civilians in the besieged southern city of Marawi, where government forces have been struggling to dislodge militants who have entrenched themselves for the last month.
The attempt was thwarted by fighters from Abu Sayyaf
and Maute, backed by militants from elsewhere in Southeast Asia and the Middle East, who then went on a rampage in Marawi, a predominantly Muslim city in the mostly Catholic Philippines.
They killed these innocent civilians in cold blood." The grisly discovery came as government troops were struggling to retake
the city from the Islamist militants, whose numbers are believed to have dwindled to between 150 and 200 fighters.
The discovery came more than a month after Islamic State-inspired gunmen with the Abu Sayyaf
and Maute militant groups overran Marawi, a city of 200,000.
The recovered bodies brought the death toll in more than a month of fighting to 44 civilians, 71 soldiers
and police officers and 299 militants, the military said.
The fighting began on May 23, when the police and the military tried to arrest the leader of an Abu Sayyaf
faction, Isnilon Hapilon, said to be the leader of the Philippine branch of the Islamic State.