HEAVY FIGHTING: Ferocious, street-to-street gunbattles with the militants on Friday saw 13 troops killed, in a dramatic surge in the toll -
MARAWI: United States special forces are providing support to the Philippine military battling to dislodge militants in a southern city, the US Embassy said on Saturday, as 13 Filipino marines were killed in fresh fighting.
Philippine troops are struggling to defeat hundreds of fighters, who rampaged through Marawi on May 23 flying black flags of the IS group, and have used civilians as human shields, bomb-proof tunnels and anti-tank weapons to fortify their positions.
Friday’s ferocious, street-to-street gunbattles with the militants saw 13 troops killed, in a dramatic surge in the toll from the conflict, Philippine military spokesmen said.
A 15-year-old boy was also killed by a stray bullet as he took part in Friday prayers at a mosque in Marawi as the skirmishes raged outside, a video journalist said.
It was among the heaviest fighting seen in Marawi as the air force battered parts of the city with strikes to support ground troops. Some 40 marines were wounded in the gunbattles that lasted 14 hours, according to military spokesman Colonel Edgardo Arevalo.
As the conflict intensified, the US Embassy in Manila said American forces were providing assistance to the Filipino troops, although it declined to give details for security reasons.
“At the request of the government of the Philippines, US special operations forces are assisting the (Philippine military) with ongoing operations in Marawi,” the embassy said in a statement.
Marawi-based military spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Jo-ar Herrera confirmed the US help, adding that the special forces were not fighting, but “providing technical support”.
He said Friday’s deaths amounted to the military’s biggest single-day loss in the campaign. Herrera also said there are “strong indications” that Omarkhayam and Madie Maute, two leaders of the Marawi attack, were killed in separate operations.
But he added the military is still “validating” the report and there is no way of independently confirming it.
“There were intense firefights, house-to-house gunbattles,” Herrera said at a news conference in Marawi earlier in describing Friday’s gunbattles, adding that the total number of government troops killed in the conflict was 58.
Over 20 civilians have been confirmed killed due to the fighting, according to the government, but the true number is likely to be higher with authorities yet to fully assess the roughly 10 per cent of Marawi still being held by the militants.
Tens of thousands have fled Marawi as the fighting ripped through residential neighbourhoods, with more than 200,000 displaced people now living in precarious conditions and vulnerable to deadly health risks, the International Committee of the Red Cross warned on Friday. — AFP
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