The Philippine military yesterday declared an eight-hour ceasefire in its offensive against Muslim militants occupying parts of the war-torn city of Marawi, to allow residents to celebrate the end of Ramadan.
Assaults backed by air and artillery bombardment stopped at the start of Islamic prayers at 6am, but gunfire erupted as soon as the truce ended about 2pm, reporters in Marawi said.
Military chief General Eduardo Ano ordered his forces to observe a “humanitarian pause” during the Eid al-Fitr holiday in Marawi.
“We declare a lull in our current operations in the city on that day as a manifestation of our high respect to the Islamic faith,” Ano said in a statement.
Hundreds of militants, flying the flag of the Islamic State group and backed by foreign fighters, seized swathes of Marawi in the southern region of Mindanao last month, sparking bloody street battles.
Troops have launched a relentless air and ground offensive, but have failed to dislodge gunmen from entrenched positions in pockets of the city.
Much of the lakeside city is now in ruins while most of its 200,000 residents have fled to evacuation centers or to the homes of relatives and friends in other towns.
At Iligan just north of Marawi, evacuees dressed in colorful flowing robes marked the end of Ramadan by holding prayers on the grounds of city hall. Armed commandos from the police Special Action force stood guard as the prayers were held.
Presidential spokesman Ernesto Abella yesterday said that a navy ship was sent to Cotabato, south of Marawi, to bring supplies for soldiers involved in the fighting and serve as a floating hospital for the wounded.
Philippine military spokesman Brigadier General Restituto Padilla said that about 500 civilians remained trapped in areas where the fighting is concentrated.
After the ceasefire ends “we will continue to try to enter the areas occupied by them and liberate Marawi,” Padilla said on radio station DZBB.
Nearly 300 militants and 67 troops have been killed in the fighting, according to official figures.
“This [Eid] is memorable because we are celebrating it away from our homes,” Marawi Mayor Majul Usman Gandamrahe said on ANC television.
“We are hoping that this problem will soon be over... I urge everybody to continue praying so that the turmoil in our city of Marawi will end,” he said.
A senior military commander on Saturday said that Isnilon Hapilon, a leader of the Marawi attack, might have slipped out of the city, but regionaly military spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Jo-ar Herrera yesterday said the military was still checking the report.
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