Military capable of surgical attacks, not to be underestimated —AFP

The Armed Forces is capable of conducting "surgical air strikes" meant to neutralize foes such as the Maute group in Marawi City with minimal damage to non-combatants and property, the military spokesman said on Monday.

AFP spokesperson Brig. Gen. Restituto Padilla Jr. made the remark after a Lanao Del Sur congressman bewailed that among those destroyed in the air strikes was the family home in the city.

“Yes, we do have the expertise. We do have the people to man equipment. And we have equipment to do surgical air strikes," Padilla said at a news briefing.

"Please do not underestimate your soldiers. We have been into this fight longer than any country in this part of the world and anywhere else. We have proven ourselves many times over,” he added.

Lanao del Sur 2nd District Rep. Jun Papandayan earlier said that their family home was hit the by air strikes.

Padilla saod airstrikes were performed against enemy forces blocking the movements of the government forces.

“In the aspect of determining what to hit and what not to hit, if there is presence of the enemy in certain areas and it is impeding movements of our armed elements to come in, we do consider eliminating that resistance in the least amount of force that can be applied," Padilla said.

"So, if it calls for a surgical airstrike of some sort, we will try to make sure that we only aim for that particular point of resistance and nothing else. And we are capable of doing that. In fact, we have been successfully doing that,” he added.

Padilla said that that no civilians were harmed during the military’s airstrikes.

“So, if there are innocent lives, at this point, I cannot answer you because we have not been able to inflict any harm on civilians,” Padilla said.

“Now, on the aspect of the safety guarantees that can be given to residents in the area… there are over 390 persons who have been rescued and that is a priority of the military, always, to lessen collateral damage, that means to say loss of innocent lives and damage to property,” he added. —NB, GMA News