Marwai war survivors start returning home; terror continues in Philippine

There were scenes of joy and chaos as a convoy of returning residents poured in to Marawi to a cacophony of horns and whistles, jamming what only a few hours earlier were deserted streets.

Khaliluddin Ismail returned home on Sunday after five months of war in the southern Philippines to find his house ransacked. But he’s still smiling.

“At least we have something left,” he said, standing in a room with clothes, toys, ornaments and damaged pictures strewn across the floor.

“Others have nothing. They lost their homes, they lost their lives.”

Ismail, 44, the Imam of a nearby mosque, considers himself one of the luckiest people in Marawi. The city was devastated by more than 150 days of battles between government forces and pro-Islamic State militants that killed more than 1,100 people and displaced some 350,000.

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