Overkill? Some locals question Marawi shelling
▻http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2017/10/overkill-locals-question-marawi-shelling-171029074135753.html
Marawi City, Philippines - With this city won back from pro-ISIL fighters, military troops have begun their gradual exit, allowing civilian officials and journalists to enter the blockaded central district where most of the fighting took place.
The view that unfolded was staggering: five months of heavy shelling has left Marawi’s centre of life and commerce an apocalyptic wasteland. Pockmarked chunks of steel and concrete that used to be homes, shops, schools and mosques covered the streets, except where bombs had left craters.
Although thankful that the fighters of the Maute armed group have been flushed out of their city, some local leaders wondered if its physical destruction - mostly from military aerial bombings - could have been avoided.
“We were against the air strikes from the very beginning,” said Zia Alonto Adiong, a regional legislator and spokesman of the civilian committee that manages the Marawi crisis. “We were hoping for a different strategy.”