MANILA, Philippines – As if it’s from a movie scene of a house burning, a woman suddenly gets a massive adrenalin rush and then jumps from a high roof to cheat death.
But no, the scene isn’t fiction but the real life of those caught in the war in Marawi.
An estimated 2,000 residents locked themselves up in their own homes for a week over fears they would be among the casualties in the attacks unleashed by Maute rebels.
On Wednesday, the Provincial Crisis Management Committee of Lanao del Sur came to the aid of 60 of the trapped residents, including the elderly, who endured hunger as they hid from the militants who want to control Marawi and allegedly create a wailayat or an ISIS province in Mindanao.
The rescue operations had to be swift but cautious as Maute snipers could just be around ready to shoot government forces and even civilians.
On the same day, a bombing accident that was supposedly an air strike on the Islamist rebels took place in the Lanao del Sur capital, killing 11 government troops.
The incident came during what was the first offensive deployment of fixed-wing aircraft in the nine-day operation, aimed at flushing out the Islamist gunmen who have defied expectations by clinging on through days of ground assaults and helicopter rocket attacks.
“Sometimes in the fog of war a lot of things could happen. Accidents happen, like this,” Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana told a news conference on Thursday.
“It’s very sad to be hitting our own troops,” he added. “There must be a mistake somewhere, either someone directing from the ground, or the pilot.”
The deaths of the soldiers takes the number of security force members killed to 38, with 19 civilians and 120 rebel fighters killed in the battles in Marawi over the nine days.
Lorenzana said militants who were Saudi, Malaysian, Indonesian, Yemeni and Chechen were among eight foreigners killed in the fighting, in what experts say is a sign the Philippines may have a major problem on its hands.
Lorenzana said the military might suspend air strikes, describing the rebels as a small force that “cannot hold that long”.
Bombardments by OV-10 light attack aircraft were carried for over an hour early on Thursday. Troops engaged rebel snipers, as helicopters circled identifying targets.
A fire blazed in one building moments after a plane dropped its payload. Smoke rose into the sky.
President Rodrigo Duterte is concerned radical ideology is spreading in the southern Philippines and it could become a haven for militants forced out of Iraq and Syria.
He made no mention of the killing of soldiers by air force planes in a speech on Thursday. He said the Maute group was being given too much credit, and that the occupation of Marawi was the work of Islamic State, and planned a long time ago.
“You know, the rebellion in Mindanao, it’s not Maute, it’s purely ISIS,” he said.
The military was carrying out air strikes on locations it believes are sheltering Isnilon Hapilon, the so-called emir of Islamic State and point man in the Philippines.
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