Manila: Government troops have found eight bodies of civilians who were allegedly executed by militants in Marawi city in southern Philippines, bringing the death toll in the six-day clashes between army and militants to 95, a military spokesman said on Sunday.

Brigadier General Restituto Padilla said the eight bodies, including women and a child, were found on Saturday night and Sunday morning in Marawi city, which has been under siege by Maute militants since Tuesday, Xinhua reported.

"The bodies (found) consist of four males, three females and a child," Padilla said, adding that the discovery of the eight bodies "validates" reports that militants have indeed killed civilians.

"We are still validating other reports of atrocities by militants," Padilla said. To date, he said, 19 civilians have been confirmed to have been executed by militants.

Padilla said so far, 61 militants have been killed in the firefight and that 11 soldiers and four policemen have also been killed.

Padilla said in a statement that the troops will continue "precision" air strikes and artillery fire at specific targets in the city where the Maute militants are hiding.

Padilla said the ongoing military air strikes and military actions focus on freeing a still undetermined number of civilians trapped in the city's interiors.

"Precision airstrikes and artillery fire will likewise continue at specific targets to hasten the clearing," Padilla said.

The Philippine media reported on Sunday that heavy fighting, explosions and airstrikes continued as troops sealed the city of Maute militants.

Hundreds of Marawi city residents have fled as the military operations to flush out the militants intensified.

"Our forces are working overtime to hasten the restoration of the rule of law and Marawi's return to normalcy," Padilla said.

President Rodrigo Duterte, who declared martial law on the island of Mindanao in the southern Philippines on Tuesday night, vowed to crack down on local militants who have alleged links with ISIS and seek to carve out a caliphate out of Mindanao.

"Until the police and armed forces say the Philippines is safe, this martial law will continue," he told soldiers in Iligan City on Saturday.

The violence that broke out on Tuesday afternoon on the southern island left 95 people dead, the military said. The military has earlier said that some of the dead militants are foreigners from neighbouring countries.

Mindanao is home to a number of Muslim insurgent groups seeking more autonomy. The insurgents have been fighting the government for decades. </s> 1.The Philippines, which is majority Catholic, has faced Muslim separatist movements for decades in Mindanao island with its significant Muslim population. The IS linked Maute group carries the black flag and insignia of IS, and like the better known Abu Sayyaf group has attacked both troops and civilians.Militants allied to the so-called Islamic State came out onto the streets of Marawi last week after the army attempted to capture a top militant leader.In response the Maute swarmed the city, taking over a hospital and burning down buildings. Many residents fled the city as clashes erupted, but a local official said about 2,000 people were unable to leave areas held by the militants.

2.The battle for Marawi began five days ago when the security forces failed to capture Isnilon Hapilon, believed to be the main IS leader in the Philippines.The military says it needs some time to regain control of the city. Troops are reported to be finding it difficult to dislodge dozens of Maute group fighters who appear to be well armed and still occupying buildings across much of Marawi.

3.At least 19 civilians have been killed in continuing clashes between the armed forces of the Philippines and Islamist insurgents in the city of Marawi, military officials say on Monday the 29th May.Some of those trapped in the city have called or sent text messages to a hotline to urge the military to refrain from further air strikes, provincial crisis management committee Chairman Zia Alonto Adiong said."Some have no food at all. Some fear for their lives," he told Reuters."This is a conflict that has gone beyond proportion. The magnitude of the degree of the damage and the people that are affected... it's really massive." .About 60 militants and 15 members of the security forces have been killed since Saturday, the army says.

4.The bodies were discovered by advancing soldiers this weekend.The military is attempting to recapture Marawi, on Mindanao island, after it was recently overrun by jihadists. Eight of the dead were found in a ravine outside the city, their hands tied and gunshot wounds to their heads.

5.The eight victims are believed to be carpenters who were part of an evacuation convoy stopped by rebels late on Saturday. They are believed to have been killed after they were unable to recite extracts form the Koran.

6.The Marawi region is a stronghold of the hardline Maute group, which has pledged allegiance to so-called Islamic State (IS).The Philippine military says it has made gains retaking Marawi city from Islamist militants amid clashes that have left about 100 people dead.

7.According to the military, militants now control only small pockets within the southern Philippine city. But there are still reports of fighting on the ground and thousands of civilians trapped. .Spokesman for the Philippines' Armed Forces said troops were in "complete control of the city except for certain areas" held by militants from the Maute group, the local militants who have declared allegiance to IS. He said that "around 40 to 50 armed elements" were still present in the city, but this may increase given the militants' activities on the ground including the freeing of more than 100 prisoners from a local jail.

8.He added that 18 military and police personnel had been killed and more than 61 Maute fighters are dead.Reports say the remaining fighters are still believed to be holding several hostages, including a priest and a number of Christians. 10.President Rodrigo Duterte declared martial law early last week on the southern island of Mindanao, where Marawi is located. Marawi is known as "Islamic City" in the Philippines for its Muslim-majority population. Most of the population of Marawi has left, but local officials believe as many as 2,000 are still trapped by the fighting.(Source: BBC News) </s> Gunfire erupted between Philippine security forces and militants in Marawi City in the mid-afternoon Tuesday. By the time the sun had set on the small southern city, President Rodrigo Duterte had declared martial law in the region and vowed to end his diplomatic trip to Moscow early.

In the hours between, violence and confusion consumed the community, as armed men linked with the Maute Group occupied the Amai Pakpak Medical Center and several other major buildings. Philippine Secretary Delfin Lorenzana, who is in Moscow with Duterte, told a news conference that militants even set fire to some of those buildings — including the city's jail, a local Catholic church and Dansalan college.

Lorenzana said the confrontation opened at about 2 p.m. Tuesday, when government forces attempted to arrest a senior leader of the Abu Sayyaf Group, an extremist organization with ties to the Islamic State. They had learned Isnilon Hapilon was in the area, but according to Lorenzana, the military had not expected him to be backed up by "more or less 100 fighters" — many of whom were members of another ISIS-linked organization, the Maute Group.

It was not a lapse in military intelligence that caused the clashes, Lorenzana said, but rather a failure to "appreciate" the intelligence collected.

Gunfights ensued, killing at least two soldiers and one police officer and injuring 12 other members of the security forces. Meanwhile, photographs purporting to show buildings aflame and black flags raised above public buildings hit social media.

Philippine authorities assert the situation is under control — though they have told residents in Marawi City to remain indoors and summoned reinforcements from neighboring regions to redouble their efforts to reclaim the city Wednesday morning.

For now, "the whole of Marawi City is blacked out," Lorenzana said. "There is no light and there are Maute snipers all around." He noted that militants still occupy a central street in the city.

Hapilon, the man whom Philippine soldiers had sought at the start of the operation, "allegedly served as deputy or second in command for the foreign terrorist organization, Abu Sayyaf Group," according to the FBI. The bureau has placed him on its own list of Most Wanted Terrorists.

The New York Times reports that both Abu Sayyaf and Maute, a relatively new offshoot of the separatist Moro Islamic Liberation Front, have pledged allegiance to ISIS and vowed further violence against the majority-Catholic country.

Or, as Philippine Foreign Affairs Secretary Alan Peter Cayetano put it Tuesday: They are groups that "have been auditioning for recognition in ISIS."

Presidential spokesperson Ernesto Abella said that as of 10 p.m. local time, Duterte had declared martial law for all of Mindanao, the southern island that has both Marawi City and Davao — the president's home city — reside. The restriction, which suspends habeas corpus, is set to last about 60 days.

As the Philippine news service Rappler reports, the declaration of martial law actually fulfills a warning made by the president just days ago.

"Please do not force my hand into it. I hate to do it. I do not want to do it," Duterte said in a speech last Friday in Davao, according to Rappler. "But if there will be loss of lives needlessly, and without reason, just to kill, kill, and kill, I will declare martial law in Mindanao.

"And if I declare martial law in Mindanao, I will solve all that ails the island." </s> Hundreds of civilians hoping to flee fighting in the besieged Philippines city of Marawi remained trapped on Sunday after a four-hour ceasefire to evacuate residents was marred by gunfire.

Authorities said they had finally been able to negotiate a truce with fighters linked to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS), but continued clashes throughout the morning meant it was not put into place as expected.

At least 134 people are believed to have been rescued.

READ MORE: Dozens flee 'ISIL gunmen' in besieged Philippine city

President Rodrigo Duterte had asked the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), a separatist movement based on the island of Mindanao, to help negotiate a peace settlement with the fighters, who are predominantly drawn from the Maute group based in and around Marawi.

Maute is named after its leaders, the Maute brothers, who are cousins of the second wife of Alim Abdulaziz Mimbantas, a MILF leader. The government signed a peace deal with the MILF in 2014.





MILF cadres organised Sunday's ceasefire, which was to run from 8am until noon. They roamed the streets with loudhailers urging residents to leave.

But by 9am, gunfire had broken out, deterring residents from joining a mass exodus.

Local authorities said government officials, working through intermediaries, had reached agreement with the fighters to observe the four-hour ceasefire and let the trapped civilians leave.



But the officials failed to secure agreement from their own military for the truce, provincial crisis management committee spokesman Zia Alonto Adiong told the AFP news agency.



He said the military only allowed rescuers to access areas on the fringes of zones held by the fighters, and barred them from entering bombed-out city blocks.



As a result only some 170-plus trapped residents were led to safety on Sunday, according to the military. Speaking to the Reuters news agency, a presidential spokesman put the number of those who were evacuated at 134.



"We felt a bit disappointed and betrayed. We're talking about lives of people, my God!" Adiong said.



"There are 2,000 people who need immediate help (after) 13 days without food."

The battle for Marawi, a city on Mindanao island, began almost two weeks ago and prompted Duterte to declare martial law in the southern region.

Authorities lifted the civilian death toll from 20 to 38 on Sunday - but said all those deaths were caused by the separatist fighters.

A presidential spokesman said 120 fighters had died, along with 38 government forces.

Government forces have bombarded Marawi with air raids and waged fierce street-to-street battles with hundreds of gunmen since they rampaged through the Muslim city of 200,000 on May 23 after the military attempted to arrest their leader, Isnilon Hapilon.

READ MORE: Mindanao crisis - A city on fire

Scores of people made a daring dash for safety on Saturday, including one of Marawi's most respected politicians who had hidden 71 Christians in his home and led 144 people through downtown streets strewn with rotting corpses.

Many residents told Reuters that the air raids caused extensive property damage and dozens of civilian deaths.

Duterte said the use of air power had been restrained so far.

"I can end this war in 24 hours," he said. "All I have to do is to bomb the whole place and level it to the ground." </s> "A group of our own army men were killed by our own airstrike – 10 killed and 8 wounded," Delfin Lorenzana told reporters, as quoted by the local ABS-CBN radio.

The minister said the government of the Pacific Ocean archipelago was examining the incident.

The attack appears to be part of the ongoing operation to flush Maute militants, affiliated with the Islamic State terror group (Daesh), out of the city on the southern island of Mindanao.

Fighting broke out in Marawi last month when Islamists stormed the city, prompting Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte to declare martial law on the island. More than a hundred, including militants, have died in clashes. </s> The Philippine city of Iligan was overflowing with evacuees and on lockdown on Monday over fears Islamist militants had sneaked out of nearby Marawi, where troops were battling to drive out gunmen holed up in buildings for a seventh day.The fighting in the city of Marawi with pro-Islamic State militants of the Maute group is the biggest security challenges of Rodrigo Duterte’s 11-month presidency, with gunmen still holding parts of the city and fending off helicopter air strikes and ground attacks by commandos.

Most of Marawi’s 200,000 people have left, many pouring into Iligan, some 38 km (24 miles) away, where authorities said they were stretched to the limit and worried that Maute fighters were blending in with the displaced and could launch attacks. “We don’t want what’s happening in Marawi to spill over in Iligan,” said Colonel Alex Aduca, chief of the Fourth Mechanized Infantry Battalion. “We want to ensure the safety of people here, to prevent elements from entering and conducting terroristic activities,” he told DZMM radio.

He said some rebels had been caught trying to get into Iligan, but did not give details. Sixty-one militants, 20 members of the security forces and 19 civilians have been killed since Tuesday, when Maute rebels went on the rampage in Marawi after a botched attempt by the military to arrest Isnilon Hapilon, who the government believes is a point man for Islamic State in the Philippines.

The ability of the Maute group to fight off the military for so long will add to fears that Islamic State’s radical ideology is spreading in the southern Philippines, and it could become a haven for militants from Indonesia, Malaysia and beyond.The military believes the Maute carried out their assault before the Muslim holy month of Ramadan to capture the attention of Islamic State and earn its recognition as a Southeast Asian affiliate. Witnesses in Marawi said they had seen militants flying the Islamic State flag and wearing black outfits and headbands typical of the group.

Troops on the streets of Marawi fired at Maute snipers as smoke poured out of several buildings. Trucks loaded with marines arrived to reinforce soldiers guarding deserted streets as helicopters circulated above the lakeside city surrounded by jungle-clad hills. The military said the Maute group was still present in nine of the city’s 96 Barangays, or communities. Thousands of people were stranded, worried they could be intercepted by militants that have set up checkpoints on routes out of the city.

Civilians stuck in Marawi were without food and were as anxious about rocket strikes as much as they were the militants, said Zia Alonto Adiong, a politician coordinating efforts to evacuate civilians. He said there were still dead bodies in Marawi and civilians wanted the military to stop air strikes. “The anticipation of death is worse than death itself,” he said in a television interview. “We appeal to our military forces to do a different approach.”

Bodies of what appeared to be executed civilians were found in a ravine outside a Marawi on Sunday as the crisis took a more sinister turn. Most of the eight men were shot in the head and some had bound hands. The army said it was possible more “atrocities” had taken place. Duterte imposed martial law last week on Mindanao, an island of 22 million people where both Marawi and Iligan are located, to quell the unrest and wipe out militancy.

Some rights activists and lawmakers say martial law across the island is an overreaction that will increase the risk of human rights abuses by security forces. Presidential spokesman Ernesto Abella said the imposition of martial law was necessary, and constitutional. “It started flying the flag of the Islamic state of Iraq and Syria in several areas, thereby openly attempting to remove from the allegiance to the Philippine government this part of Mindanao,” Abella told reporters. “This constitutes the crime of rebellion.”

For all the latest World News, download Indian Express App now </s> MANILA, Philippines — US Special Operations Forces are assisting the Filipino military in its battle against ISIS-affiliated fighters, the US Embassy in Manila said Saturday.

The forces have been deployed at the request of the government, the embassy said.

The Armed Forces of the Philippines have been slugging it out with Maute militants for control of Marawi, in the southern Mindanao region of the Philippines.

The embassy couldn’t give specifics on the specific nature of the US support for “security reasons.”

US Special Operations Forces “have been providing support and assistance in response to Philippine government requests for many years,” the embassy said.

“As we have in the past, we routinely consult with our Filipino partners at senior levels to support the Duterte administration’s counterterrorism efforts,” the embassy said, referring to President Rodrigo Duterte.

“The United States is a proud ally of the Philippines, and we will continue to work with the Philippines to address shared threats to the peace and security of our countries, including on counterterrorism issues.”

The fight against the ISIS-affiliated Maute militants is proceeding on social media as well as the ground.

The Filipino military has called on Facebook to close 63 accounts linked to ISIS-affiliated Maute militants engaged in the fighting.

In a press conference in Marawi on Friday, Lt. Col. Jo-Ar Herrera said the military had uncovered 63 specific accounts used by militants that focus on “spreading propaganda messaging and misinformation.”

Without confirming the specific request from the Philippines, a Facebook spokesman said the company has “well-established law enforcement channels for governments to contact us about emergencies.”

He stressed that Facebook does remove any account linked to “groups or people that engage in terrorist activity, or posts that express support for terrorism.”

The request to Facebook comes just before the military’s goal of liberating Marawi by June 12 — the country’s Independence Day. </s> Gunfire erupted between Philippine security forces and militants in Marawi City in the mid-afternoon Tuesday. By the time the sun had set on the small southern city, President Rodrigo Duterte had declared martial law in the region and vowed to end his diplomatic trip to Moscow early.

In the hours between, violence and confusion consumed the community, as armed men linked with the Maute Group occupied the Amai Pakpak Medical Center and several other major buildings. Philippine Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana, who is in Moscow with Duterte, told a news conference that militants even set fire to some of those buildings — including the city's jail, a local Catholic church and Dansalan college.

Lorenzana said the confrontation opened Tuesday afternoon, when government forces attempted to arrest a senior leader of the Abu Sayyaf Group, an extremist organization with ties to the Islamic State. They had learned Isnilon Hapilon was in the area, but according to Lorenzana, the military had not expected him to be backed up by "more or less 100 fighters" — many of whom were members of another ISIS-linked organization, the Maute Group.

It was not a lapse in military intelligence that caused the clashes, Lorenzana said, but rather a failure to "appreciate" the intelligence collected.

Gunfights ensued, killing at least two soldiers and one police officer and injuring 12 other members of the security forces. Meanwhile, photographs purporting to show buildings aflame and black flags raised above public buildings hit social media.

Philippine authorities assert the situation is under control — though they have told residents in Marawi City to remain indoors and summoned reinforcements from neighboring regions to redouble their efforts to reclaim the city Wednesday morning.

For now, "the whole of Marawi City is blacked out," Lorenzana said. "There is no light and there are Maute snipers all around." He noted that militants still occupy a central street in the city.

Hapilon, the man whom Philippine soldiers had sought at the start of the operation, "allegedly served as deputy or second in command for the foreign terrorist organization, Abu Sayyaf Group," according to the FBI. The bureau has placed him on its own list of Most Wanted Terrorists.

The New York Times reports that both Abu Sayyaf and Maute, a relatively new offshoot of the separatist Moro Islamic Liberation Front, have pledged allegiance to ISIS and vowed further violence against the majority-Catholic country.

Or, as Philippine Foreign Affairs Secretary Alan Peter Cayetano put it Tuesday: They are groups that "have been auditioning for recognition in ISIS."

Presidential spokesperson Ernesto Abella said that as of 10 p.m. local time, Duterte had declared martial law for all of Mindanao, the southern island where both Marawi City and Davao — the president's home city — reside. The restriction is set to last about 60 days.

As the Philippine news service Rappler reports, the declaration of martial law actually fulfills a warning made by the president just days ago.

"Please do not force my hand into it. I hate to do it. I do not want to do it," Duterte said in a speech last Friday in Davao, according to Rappler. "But if there will be loss of lives needlessly, and without reason, just to kill, kill, and kill, I will declare martial law in Mindanao.

"And if I declare martial law in Mindanao, I will solve all that ails the island." </s> Philippine authorities said Sunday they were trying to negotiate a ceasefire in a war-torn southern city to rescue up to 2,000 civilians trapped in areas held by Islamist militants for nearly two weeks.

Government forces have bombarded Marawi with air strikes and waged fierce street-to-street battles with hundreds of gunmen since they began a rampage through residential areas waving the black flags of the Islamic State (IS).

Authorities said Sunday they had finally been able to negotiate a ceasefire with the militants to allow those trapped to be released, although continued fighting throughout the morning meant it was not put into place as hoped.

"There are 2,000 people who need immediate help (after) 13 days without food," Zia Alonto Adiong, spokesman for the provincial crisis management committee, told AFP.

"We do not know if the ceasefire has been breached," he said, adding that a sudden surge in fighting had hampered the rescue efforts.

Scores of people made a daring dash for safety on Saturday, including one of Marawi's most respected politicians who had hidden 71 Christians in his home and led 144 people through downtown streets strewn with rotting corpses.

The militants behind the violence in Marawi mostly belong to a local group called the Maute and the infamous Abu Sayyaf kidnap-for-ransom gang which had pledged allegiance to IS and rejected official peace talks.

Sunday's ceasefire was initially reached following a meeting last week between President Rodrigo Duterte and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), the nation's biggest rebel organisation which offered to broker a halt in hostilities using contacts with the fighters in Marawi, Adiong told DZBB radio.

Unarmed MILF rebels had a four-hour window until noon (0400 GMT) to take civilians to safety, government rescue coordinator Naguib Sinarimbo said.

But an AFP reporter said there was a sudden burst of gunfire and an explosion as rescue teams were entering the city.

A Muslim separatist rebellion in the southern Philippines has killed more than 120,000 people since the 1970s.

The MILF has signed accords with the government aimed at forging lasting peace, giving up their separatist ambitions in return for autonomy.

But small hardline groups, including the Maute and Abu Sayyaf, have refused to negotiate and sought to united behind IS.

The clashes in Marawi erupted when security forces raided a house to arrest Isnilon Hapilon, a veteran Filipino militant regarded as IS's leader in the Philippines. He is on the US government's list of most-wanted terrorists.

Authorities said they were taken by surprise when many gunmen emerged to protect Hapilon and then went on a rampage through Marawi, which has a population of 200,000.

Shortly after the violence erupted Duterte imposed martial law across the southern region of Mindanao, home to 20 million people, to quell what he said was an IS bid to establish a base in the mainly Catholic Philippines.
Philippine forces continue to battle Maute militants for the city of Marawi.