MANILA, Nov. 6 (Xinhua) -- At least nine more pro-Islamic State Maute Group stragglers had been killed in a clearing operation by government troops inside the devastated Marawi City in southern Philippines, a security official said on Monday.
The fresh encounter on Sunday also prompted the military to warn the residents of Marawi that the main battle area remains off-limit to the public, said Col. Romeo Brawner, deputy commander of Joint Task Force Ranao and 103rd Army Brigade.
Brawner said the nine stragglers were believed to be part of the remaining Maute-ISIS terrorists who survived the intense military offensive following the fall of the ISIS group on October 23.
The Maute and Abu Sayyaf group with their foreign fighters laid siege to Marawi on May 23 and held the center for 5 months until Oct. 23, when Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana announced the end of the offensive operation against the Maute-ISIS Group.
Brawner said the clearing will continue on the ground as there were still unaccounted stragglers still hiding in a labyrinth of tunnels dug by the terrorists.
The Marawi conflict has resulted in the death of more than 900 members of the Maute-ISIS Group, 165 soldiers and policemen and 47 civilians. It has also displaced hundreds of thousands of residents who have started to return to their homes.
