At least 17 hostages were rescued by the military in Marawi City on Wednesday, sources told ABS-CBN News.
The rescue, which brings down the number of remaining hostages to around 20, comes days after Armed Forces of the Philippines requested for an extension to liberate the war-torn city.
Col. Romeo Brawner, deputy commander of Joint Task Group Ranao however did not confirm the recent rescue yet, saying “operation is still ongoing” to rescue all remaining hostages.
ABS-CBN News sources said among those rescued were female teachers who were held captive since the start of the siege last May.
Authorities meanwhile are also checking possible ties of the rescued male hostages to terrorists since some may be members of the Maute extremist group and are just posing as civilians.
The military also recovered several homemade bombs, cellphones suspected of being used as triggering device, and around 20 blasting caps, in an abandoned house near the cleared area of Barangay Matampay.
Authorities believe that the house was used as a factory of homemade bombs by the terrorists even before the start of the war.
Fighting between security forces and Islamic State-linked terrorists has been raging for nearly 4 months in Marawi, leaving more than 900 dead, most of them terrorists, and hundreds of thousands displaced.
