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Reuters

The decapitated bodies of five civilians have been found in a Philippine city occupied by Islamist rebels, the military said on Wednesday, warning the number of residents killed by rebel “atrocities” could rise sharply as troops retake more ground.
The discovery of the five victims among 17 other 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 the Islamic State group, as some who escaped the city have previously reported.
Lieutenant Colonel Emmanuel Garcia of the Western Mindanao Command said in a text message to reporters the five decapitated were found with the other 17 civilians killed by militants.
Garcia did not respond immediately to repeated requests for more details.

It was not clear when the bodies were found. A civilian rescue worker, Abdul Azis Lomondot, told Reuters earlier there were body parts found on Wednesday, but there was “no proof of beheading”.
The battle for Marawi entered its 36th day on Wednesday, with intense gunfights and bombing in the heart of the town and black-clad fighters seen from afar running between buildings as explosions rang out. Marawi is on southern Mindanao island.
The rebels’ hold on Marawi, while incurring the full force of a military for years trained by its U.S. counterparts, has much of the region on edge, concerned that Islamic State’s influence may run deeper than thought.

Those fears are also being felt in Malaysia and Indonesia, whose nationals are among the Maute group of rebels fighting in Marawi, suggesting the group may have built a cross-border network that has gone largely undetected.
Military spokesman Restituto Padilla said it was likely that many civilians had been killed and the death toll – already at 27 before the latest 17 were announced – was only what the authorities could confirm independently. He said a “significant number” of dead had been seen by those who had escaped fighting.
“[It] may increase significantly once we are able to validate all this information,” Padilla told reporters.
“There have been a significant number that have been seen but again, we cannot include many of these,” he said.
Padilla said the cause of those deaths would be “atrocities committed by the terrorists”. Among those atrocities, the army says, have been residents being forced to loot homes, take up arms, or become sex slaves.

Videos have appeared this month on the website of Islamic State’s Amaq news agency and its social media channels of hostages in Marawi pleading for their lives, saying they would be beheaded if air strikes were not stopped. Clips have also appeared of people on their knees, shot in the head from behind. Reuters was unable to confirm the authenticity of the reports.
The military has so far been reluctant to discuss the possibility that the real impact of the fighting on civilians could be far more severe than has been reported.
Philippines rejects hostage deal with Islamist militant group in Marawi
It has played down the impact of daily air strikes and mortar assaults aimed at rebel sniper positions, which have reduced areas of the lakeside town to rubble and alarmed people stuck there, some of whom have said the shelling was a bigger threat than the militants.
Disaster officials are keen to start dangerous missions to recover what they believe are large numbers of bodies in the streets near the conflict zone.
President Rodrigo Duterte said on Tuesday he was prepared from the outset for a long fight against a well-armed Maute motivated only by murder and destruction.
“It seems to be limitless supply. They were able to stockpile their arms,” he said.
“Some of those who travelled to the Middle East got contaminated, brought the ideology back home and promised to declare war against humanity.”
Will Duterte heed the message inherent in Marawi’s Islamist uprising?
Military spokesman Padilla called for patience and said troops needed more time to flush out the gunmen and secure the city.
“Our combat environment is sensitive. First, there are trapped civilians that we have to protect. They also have hostages and third, there are many traps so we have to clear buildings slowly,” he said.
Some 71 security forces and 299 militants have been killed and 246,000 people displaced in the conflict, which erupted after a failed attempt on May 23 to arrest a Filipino militant commander backed by Islamic State’s leadership.


Bodies of beheaded civilians found by Philippine troops in rebel-held Marawi

Philippines army soldiers ride in trucks into the fighting zone as government troops continue their assault against insurgents in Marawi City. Photo: Reuters

Philippines army soldiers ride in trucks into the fighting zone as government troops continue their assault against insurgents from the Maute group in Marawi City, Philippines June 28, 2017. REUTERS/Jorge Silva

Philippines army soldiers guard a bridge during an operation to retrieve bodies of casualties from the fighting zone in Marawi city, Philippines June 28, 2017. REUTERS/Jorge Silva

Philippine troops ride on their truck on their way to the frontline in the outskirts of Marawi on the southern island of Mindanao on June 28, 2017. Islamist militants occupying parts of a southern Philippine city used a water route to bring in ammunition and evacuate wounded fighters, helping them withstand a five-week military offensive, the army said June 27. / AFP PHOTO / TED ALJIBE

Philippines VP visits refugees from Marawi war zone, Duterte unseen in days

Philippines Vice-President Leni Robredo meets families at an evacuation centre outside Marawi. Photo: Reuters

In this photograph taken and released by the Special Assistant to the President Bong Go on June 15, 2017, Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte reads at an unspecified location. Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has withdrawn from public duties this week because he is tired and needs to "rejuvenate", his spokesman said June 15 as government forces battled Islamist militants in the biggest crisis of his rule. / AFP PHOTO / PPD / HO

Black smoke billows from burning houses after Philippine Airforce attack planes conducted aerial bombings on Islamist militants' positions in Marawi on the southern island of Mindanao on June 26, 2017. 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 and raising regional concern. / AFP PHOTO / Ted ALJIBE

epa06040074 A handout photo made available by the Presidential Photographers Division (PPD) on 21 June 2017 shows Philippine President Rodrigo Roa Duterte (R) visiting wounded soldiers confined at Camp Edilberto Evangelista Station Hospital in Cagayan de Oro City, Southern Philippines, 20 June 2017, following continued fighting in Marawi City between government troops and members of the militant Maute group. EPA/RICHARD MADELO/PPD HANDOUT HANDOUT EDITORIAL USE ONLY/NO SALES

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