At least 13 ISIS-linked terrorists were killed in the Philippines city of Marawi where government forces carried out an operation over 70 hostages held captive by the Islamic State-linked Maute Group inside the Amai Pakpak Medica Center public hospital.
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Government forces managed to rescue 78 civilians from Amai Pakpak Medical Center public hospital where the terrorists tried to use them as human shields as the army moved in.
In the operation Five soldiers and two policemen have been killed in clashes with ISIS militants since Tuesday, Russia Today quoted Col. Edgard Arevalo of the Armed Forces of the Philippines Public Affairs Office as saying.
The army killed 13 gunmen of the IS-affiliated Maute group who had overrun the local clinic, taking hostages and occupying Marawi’s City Hall.
On Tuesday night, President Rodrigo Duterte imposed martial law in southern Mindanao region for 60 days after battles between government forces and Maute in Marawi escalated.
More than 100 armed members of the Maute group, the Bangsamoro Islamic Liberation Front, and Abu Sayyaf group attacked the region’s Marawi City on Tuesday
The government may consider the covered areas of martial law, in the event that members of Maute group and other ISIS-affiliated terrorists seek sanctuary or expand their terrorist activities in the Visayas and Mindanao,” Duterte said.
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“I will not allow the country to go to the dogs. As I said, the military has the primary role now of keeping the law and order situation and in all parts of the Republic of the Philippines,” the president said.