Marawi Siege: Philippines Says Beheaded Civilians Found In Daesh-Held Town

Local Editor

Five decapitated civilians were found in a Philippine city occupied by extremist militants on Wednesday, the military said, warning the number of residents killed by terrorists could rise sharply as troops retake more ground.

The discovery of the five victims among 17 bodies retrieved would be the first evidence that civilians trapped in besieged Marawi City have been decapitated during the five-week stand by militants loyal to Daesh [the Arabic acronym for the Takfiri ‘ISIS/ISIL' group] as some who escaped the city have previously reported.

Seventy-one security force personnel and 299 militants have been killed and 246,000 people displaced in the conflict, which erupted after a failed attempt on 23 May to arrest a Filipino militant commander backed by Daesh leadership.

For his part, President Rodrigo Duterte promised to destroy the militants in Marawi and said the Philippines was now dealing with "a very dangerous situation" due to young Muslims inspired by the "mass insanity" of Daesh.

"All they do is just to kill and destroy, and killing in a most brutal way," he said at an event where he received hundreds of sniper and assault rifles donated by China to help the military campaign in Marawi.

"They enjoy decapitating people in front of cameras. They have to be dealt with, with the same ferocity but not the brutality," he said.

The information about the beheadings came via a text message to reporters from Lt Cnl Emmanuel Garcia of the Western Mindanao Command.

Garcia did not respond to repeated requests for details.

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team