Ten Philippine troops killed by friendly fire in battle with Islamists
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Version 0 of 1. At least 10 Philippine troops have been killed by air strikes aimed at taking out Islamist militants who are battling soldiers in the southern city of Marawi, the defence secretary said on Thursday. “A group of our military armed men were hit by our own airstrikes. Ten killed,” defence secretary Delfin Lorenzana told reporters in Manila, adding that his forces had been up against 500 extremists who had a “big plan” to occupy Marawi. He said 89 militants had been killed in the clashes, including foreign fighters from Indonesia, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, Yemen and Chechnya. Security forces have been battling militants flying the black flags of the Islamic State (IS) group in Marawi, a Muslim city in the predominantly Catholic Philippines. Along with fighter aircraft, the military has used attack helicopters to bomb the militants, who have been hiding in residential areas holding hostages. About 2,000 civilians are also trapped in the militant-held areas, according to the local government. Military chiefs have repeatedly said the assaults involved “precision” and “surgical” airstrikes, and assured they were not harming any of the trapped civilians or hostages. But Lorenzana admitted on Thursday that the while an initial bombing raid on Wednesday had its target, the second missed and hit his own forces. “It’s very sad to be hitting our own troops,” Lorenzana said. “There must be a mistake somewhere, either someone directing from the ground, or the pilot. “It’s sad but sometimes it happens in the fog of war. The coordination was not properly done.” He told AFP later via text message that seven soldiers had also been wounded. The clashes erupted last week when security forces raided a house to arrest Isnilon Hapilon, a veteran Filipino militant regarded as IS’s leader in the Philippines. He is on the US government’s list of most-wanted terrorists. Authorities said they were taken by surprise when dozens of gunmen emerged to protect Hapilon and then went on a rampage through Marawi, which has a population of 200,000. Most of the residents had fled the city but the International Committee of the Red Cross has repeatedly expressed deep concern for those who remained trapped, and called for a humanitarian ceasefire. “I think it’s horrific for the civilian people who are in there and we really hope that both sides can agree that the civilians should be given the opportunity to come out,” the deputy head of the ICRC’s Philippine delegation, Martin Thalmann, told AFP in Marawi on Wednesday. President Rodrigo Duterte declared martial law across the entire southern region of Mindanao in response to the crisis, which he described as the start of a major campaign by IS to establish a foothold in the Philippines. The announcement of the friendly fire deaths brings the number of security forces killed to 31, and the combined death toll to 139. Agence France-Presse, Reuters and Associated Press contributed to this report. |