MANILA: Marawi residents on Friday prayed for peace during observance of Eid Al-Adha, as the military plans its final offensive to clear the city from the Daesh-inspired Maute group.
Brig. Gen. Restituto Padilla, spokesman for the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), said government troops temporarily ceased fire out of respect to the Muslim religious holiday.
“We paused fighting with due respect as our Muslim brothers and sisters held their morning prayers,” Padilla told Arab News.
President Rodrigo Duterte has declared Sept. 1 a regular holiday in observance of the Muslim festival.
Thousands of residents gathered at the Marawi campus of Mindanao State University (MSU) to commemorate Eid Al-Adha. Padilla said the feast was also observed in evacuation centers and safe zones in the city.
“At 6:20 a.m., we went to the MSU because the Eid prayer was performed there. It was a nice and peaceful Eid,” resident Fatheema Aisha bint Barani told Arab News, adding that after the morning prayers, airstrikes against Maute resumed. “We heard so many explosions,” she said.
Media reports quoted Muslim leaders in the area as saying turnout at the MSU was lower than usual for Eid Al-Adha due to the ongoing conflict.
Padilla said the military is “on clearing operations and final offensives,” but did not give a timeframe for the full liberation of the city from Maute.
“We don’t know how long it will take to clear the remaining areas where the enemy is holding out” in heavily fortified buildings, he added.
“We still have to clear less than 300 structures, including the most heavily built structures, and two small mosques.”
Padilla said an operation against Maute on Thursday, which left three soldiers dead and 52 others wounded, was one of the military’s toughest. Five Maute fighters were also killed.
The latest casualties raised the death toll among troops to 136 since the crisis broke out on May 23.
The military said it has retaken a strategic bridge at the Bonggolo commercial district in Marawi, which will facilitate supplies and reinforcements.
The AFP urged the public to continue showing support for government troops, and to “unceasingly pray for an early resolution of the Marawi conflict.”
An AFP statement read: “Our troops are doing their best and working overtime to end hostilities with the hope of rescuing the remaining hostages and expediting the road to normalcy of the City of Marawi.”
The AFP added: “We owe it to each and every peace-loving Filipino to liberate Marawi at the soonest possible time from the clutches of the remaining terrorists who continue to defy our laws.”
Col. Romeo Brawner, Joint Task Force Marawi deputy commander, said the final offensive must be carried out with utmost care to ensure the safety of hostages.
There are indications that Maute will use them as human shields or suicide bombers, he said, adding that troops recovered a vest packed with explosives in an area previously held by the terrorist group.
