16 civilians, children included, found dead in war-torn Marawi City 

Security forces on Saturday evening found eight corpses  of women and children, and discovered in another place early Sunday morning eight bodies of men, as military offensives to clear Marawi City of the terrorist Maute-ISIS group raged.

All of the 16 victims found in two separate places from Saturday evening until early Sunday were civilians, reports said.

Armed Forces of the Philippines spokesperson Brig. Gen. Restituto Pandilla on Sunday morning told Radio dzBB that a group of corpses, mostly women and one or two children, were found some 300 meters away from the premises of the Mindanao State University on Saturday night.

He said that authorities are establishing the identities of the victims to inform their next of kin.

Elsewhere in the city, authorities found on Sunday morning eight bodies of men, bloodied and tied together, as the military's offensives continued on its 5th day.

The bodies were found in a ditch in Barangay Matampay. Two women told GMA News that the eight men were workers at a bakeshop in the city.

Super Radyo dzBB' Benjie Liwanag, reporting from Marawi, said that a sign bearing the Arabic word "munafiq," which means hypocrites, was found near the men's bodies.

Meanwhile, Padilla said that security forces' top priorities at present include clearing the city of the Maute group and the rescue of residents trapped in the skirmishes. 

Military clearing operations have continued since the members of the ISIS-inspired Maute group took siege of the city on May 23, prompting President Rodrigo Duterte to place the whole of Mindanao under martial law. —LBG/ALG, GMA News