Army: 2 Maute leaders killed in Marawi clash

From the Philippine News Agency (Jun 10): Army: 2 Maute leaders killed in Marawi clash

Founding leaders of Maute Terrorist Group fighting the government forces, Omar and Mhade Maute, were killed in the ongoing military offensives in Marawi City, the Army today said.

This according to Lt. Col. Jo-Ar Herrera, Joint Task Force Marawi spokesperson, during a news conference Saturday afternoon.

“We are validating this information but that is the report,” Herrera said.

Herrera said the local government of Masiu and civilians helped in the arrest of Farhana Maute, mother of siblings Abdul, Omar and Mhade Maute on Friday night.

Mhade was the one arguing with Abdulah Maute in a video, showing how they prepared the plan to invade Marawi City.

To date, a total of 58 government forces have been killed in the operation against ISIS linked Maute. The latest were 13 members of Philippine Marines, Herrera said.

One of the fatalities was 1st Lt. Sevillano, a Marine company commander, of Marine unit that recovered PHP52 million cash and firearms of Maute.

Twelve other Marines were killed during Friday’s skirmishes, Herrera said.

“We are on the offensive mode, we are constantly moving toward the position of enemies, unfortunately we incurred several casualties, we are doing our best to re-strategize,” he said.

“The enemy has strong defensive positions, maximize presence of high structure buildings and civilian hostages used as human shields,” he added.

“We are making adjustments in our offensives,” he said, adding that air strikes were effective in the operations.

“We hit the logistical hubs, several command and control and communications and snipers’ nest of Maute,” Herrera said.

“We have so many head ways, we are close to their exact positions, lumalakas and firefight,” the official said.

http://www.pna.gov.ph/articles/994657