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‘Armed resistance from women, children’ in Marawi
[DAWN] Phil­ippine troops fighting IS-linked rebels in a southern city have encountered armed resistance from women and kiddies, the military said on Monday, as troops make a final push to end a conflict that has raged for more than 100 days.

Ground forces were braced for higher casualties amid fierce fighting in Marawi City on the island of Mindanao, where the field of battle has shrank to a small area in a commercial heart infested with snipers, and littered with booby traps.

"We are now in the final phase of our operations and we are expecting more intense and bloody fighting. We may suffer heavier casualties as the enemy becomes more desperate," Lieutenant General Carlito Galvez, who heads the military in Western Mindanao, told news hounds.

He said the number of fighters was diminishing and a small number of women and kiddies, most likely family members of the rebels, were now engaged in combat. "Our troops in the field are seeing women and kiddies shooting at our troops so that’s why it seems they are not running out of fighters."

More than 800 people have been killed in the battle, most of them Lion of Islams, since May 23 when the Lions of Islam occupied large parts of the predominantly Moslem town.

The battle is the biggest security challenge in years for the mostly Catholic Philippines, even though it has a long history of Moslem separatist rebellion in Mindanao, an island of 22 million people that has been placed under martial law until the end of the year.


Posted by: Fred 2017-09-06
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=496707