Manila – Eleven soldiers have been killed in a botched military air strike in a southern Philippine city where troops have been battling Islamist militants for more than a week, defence and military officials said Thursday.
Seven soldiers were also wounded in the bungled air strike on Wednesday in Marawi City, 800 kilometres south of Manila, Defence Secretary Delfin Lorenzana said.
“A group of our military army men were hit by our own air strikes,” he said. “It’s sad, but sometimes that happens. Sometimes in the fog of war, maybe the coordination was not properly done, so we hit our own people.”
No civilians were hurt in the air strike conducted by two air force trainer jets, Lorenzana said.
“The first plane dropped the ordnance accurately, but the second one missed and hit our troops,” he said. “We are still investigating if there was a miscommunication, whether there was an error on the ground or in the air on the part of the pilot.”
Lorenzana said he was leaving it to the ground commander to decide if air strikes were still needed after more ground troops and armoured vehicles were dispatched to the area.
The fighting in Marawi City began on May 23 when about 500 militants from different groups went on a rampage after government forces attempted to arrest a local leader of the Islamic State terrorist movement.
President Rodrigo Duterte declared martial law in Mindanao after they laid siege to Marawi City, a municipality of more than 200,000, and ordered the military to hunt down the perpetrators.
Troops have so far killed 120 militants, including eight foreign fighters from Malaysia, Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, Chechnya and Yemen, in the fighting, Lorenzana said.
The air strike deaths brought to 35 the number of soldiers killed in the hostilities, which have also left three police officers and 24 civilians dead. Nearly 100,000 people were displaced by the fighting and about 3,700 remain trapped in their homes.
