The war in Marawi City is at its tailend as soldiers only have to clear just one building where remaining members of the Maute Group are hiding.
Col. Romeo Brawner Jr., deputy commander of Joint Task Group Ranao, said the fighting is confined to a single building where an estimated 30 terrorists were holed up.
Government troops have earlier cleared several villages occupied by the Islamic State-linked Maute group. These villages were Matampay, Tampilong, East Basak, Basak Malutlut, Moriatao, Loksadato, Marawi Poblacion, Datu Saber, Green and Panggao Saduc.
Brawner said the wives of the terrorists have joined the fighting.
“It looks like the females have become fighters. We don’t know how many but it looks like they have chosen to fight it out together with their husbands,” Brawner said in a news conference in Marawi City.
“If you recall during the first few days [of the fighting] we saw a lot of female snipers,” he added.
Military officials believe that these women were taken hostage during the early months of fighting.
“But they will have liability also and they will be charged also together with the Maute-ISIS,” he said.
“We gave them all the chances to surrender, we gave them all the chances to come out and, in fact, some of them did. There were some Maute wives who went out along with the hostages,” Brawner said.
Government troops last week rescued 20 hostages as they continued to launch offensives against the Maute holdouts. Those rescued claimed that the Maute terrorists were no longer holding any hostages.
Last week, government snipers killed the three leaders of the terror group -- Isnilon Hapilon, Omarkhayam Maute and Malaysian Mahmud Ahmad.
Brawner said there were still five foreign terrorists in the main battle area.
“At this point, we don’t know who is really the leader because after the deaths of Isnilon Hapilon and Omar Maute, it seems like they had a leadership vacuum,” he said.
Soldiers continue to urge the remaining fighters to surrender through loudspeakers, he added.
“Until [Sunday], our loudspeaker operations were ongoing. We are trying to talk to them (Maute) to surrender, we are trying to convince them to at least release the female [fighters] and child warriors inside, if any, because they will be treated humanely,” Brawner said.
“Our government forces will try to do anything to finish the firefight today. It means either troops will be able to slay all the Maute-ISIS remaining because these remaining members have committed themselves to die inside the main battle area,” he added.
More soldiers return home
As the fighting subsided, members of the 31st and the 82nd Division Reconnaissance companies based in Bohol and the provinces of Leyte and Samar, respectively, flew out of Marawi.
On Friday, members of the Philippine Army’s 1st Infantry Battalion went back to Manila after five months of fighting.
AFP spokesman Maj. Gen. Restituto Padilla Jr. said these troopers will undergo debriefing and retraining for their upcoming missions.
Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana on Sunday said six military battalions will remain in Marawi to assist in the rehabilitation programs of the Department of National Defense (DND) and the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH).
The DND is the lead agency of Task Force Bangon Marawi.
“Our engineering brigade and the DPWH are now starting to clear roads and remove debris caused by the war,” he said.