The army said it had discovered a vest rigged with explosives from a mosque, previously occupied by the militants who had been battling security forces in the southern Philippine city since May 23.
“That’s something new. The vest rigged with bombs is new,” Romeo Brawner, deputy commander of the forces trying to retake the besieged city, was reported as saying by Philippine media.
“We have not seen that before. This only indicates that they could be planning suicide bombings.
“Between 10 and 12 of them are believed to be foreign fighters who had taught their Filipino comrades suicide attacks.
“The presence of foreign fighters has contributed a lot to the cause of the Maute (militant group), not just in terms of additional fighters on the ground but also to inspire other fighters,” he said.
The Maute group, formed by two Maute brothers, along with the Abu Sayyaf militants led by Isnilon Hapilon, Islamic State’s emir-designate in Southeast Asia, are believed to be still resisting government forces.
Earlier, the military was reported as saying that 10 foreign fighters, mostly Malaysians and Indonesians, were still holed up in Marawi.
They are believed to include lecturer-turned-militant Mahmud, who Philippine armed forces chief Eduardo Ano said had arranged for a multi-million peso money transfer from the IS to fund the attack on Marawi.
Malaysia’s counter-terrorism police chief told FMT he believed Mahmud was still in Marawi city along with an unconfirmed number of other Malaysians.
“We believe Dr Mahmud is still in Marawi City,” said Ayob Khan Mydin Pitchay, the Special Branch’s Counter-Terrorism Division principal assistant director.
“We also believe a few other Malaysian fighters are still in Marawi city but we have yet to confirm their exact number.”
Mahmud, also known as Abu Handzalah, was said to have assumed a leadership role among the Maute militants in southern Philippines.
Mahmud and his right-hand man, Mohd Najib Husen, who was killed in the Philippines, were identified as the chief recruiters in Malaysia for IS.
Mahmud was also reported to have been responsible for training and sending militants to fight in Syria and Iraq.
Among those he had recruited was Malaysia’s first suicide bomber, Ahmad Tarmimi Maliki.
Mahmud himself had reportedly received training at an al-Qaeda camp in Afghanistan under Osama bin Laden while studying at Pakistan’s Islamabad Islamic University in the late 1990s.
He returned to Malaysia to lecture at Universiti Malaya. After being exposed as a militant by Malaysian police in 2014, he fled to the Philippines.