Image copyright AFP Image caption The strike was aimed at Islamist militants but hit Philippine soldiers

Ten soldiers have been killed in a government air strike in the embattled city of Marawi in the Philippines.

Eight soldiers were also wounded in the "friendly fire" incident on Wednesday, said defence secretary Delfin Lorenzana, expressing remorse.

Over the last week militants allied to the so-called Islamic State have engaged in street battles with the army leaving more than 100 people dead.

It was sparked by the attempted capture of a top militant leader by the army.

"Yesterday we had a tragedy that involved our troops. A group of our military, army men, were hit by our own airstrike. We lost men, 10 killed and 8 wounded," Mr Lorenzana told reporters.

President Rodrigo Duterte declared martial law on southern Mindanao island, where Marawi City is located, last week.

Security forces launched a raid to arrest Isnilon Hapilon - a Filipino militant on the US's list of most-wanted terror suspects.

Authorities said dozens of fighters fought back to protect him, and then attacked parts of the city with a population of 200,000, taking hostages.

The Philippines military has since been using armed forces and helicopter airstrikes to try and drive the militants out.

Most of the civilians have left Marawi, while about 2,000 remain trapped.

Defence Minister Lorenzana told reporters on Thursday that among the militants that have been killed there were fighters from at least five other nationalities including Saudi, Yemeni and Chechen, according to Reuters.</s>MANILA, Philippines (AP) — Philippine official says a military airstrike killed 11 soldiers in ‘friendly fire’ in city attacked by militants.</s>Philippine marines walk to the frontline in the continuing assaults to retake control of some areas of Marawi city Sunday, May 28, 2017 in southern Philippines.

MARAWI, Philippines — A Philippine military official says an air force airstrike killed 11 soldiers and wounded seven others in "friendly fire" as government forces struggled to rout the remaining Islamic extremists who laid a siege in a southern city for a week.

Military spokesman Brig. Gen. Restituto Padilla said Thursday a Marchetti S-211 jet was on a bombing run over militant positions in Marawi city Wednesday when one bomb hit an army position locked in close-range combat with the extremists.

Padilla says the plane made three successful bombing runs before the wayward bombing happened. He added the military has ordered an investigation.</s>The operation to defeat an attempt to establish an Islamic State Caliphate in the Philippines suffered a major setback Tuesday as the nation’s air force conducted an airstrike that killed eleven of its own soldiers.

A Philippine military Marchetti S-211 jet bombed a tactical position in the southern city of Marawi, overrun with Islamic terrorists belonging to Abu Sayyaf and the Maute group – indigenous jihadist movements that have pledged allegiance to Islamic State caliph Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi – on Wednesday. In one case, the airstrike successfully targeted a Maute group position. In the other, it landed on Manila’s own soldiers, killing eleven and injuring seven others.

“There were two planes flying. The first plane dropped the ordnance accurately, the second went wrong and hit our troops,” Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana explained at a press conference Thursday. “It’s painful, it’s very sad to be hitting our own troops. Sometimes, in the fog of war, a lot of things could happen.”

Lorenzana added that the failed airstrike was the first accident of its kind in the history of the Philippine air force and that the military would investigate what went wrong to prevent future incidents. It remains unclear whether the jet’s bombs landed on the wrong position or the ground troops had entered the location without updating those in the air, but Lorenzana said signs pointed to “pilot error.”

The Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) are considered ceasing airstrikes over Marawi because of the incident, but Lorenzana told reporters they had yet to make a decision, and the government would ultimately leave the decision at the hands of military commanders. Marawi is a densely populated city of 200,000 on the island of Mindanao, home to much of the nation’s Muslim majority. Its narrow streets and populated buildings have made the mission to eradicate ISIS elements especially difficult for Philippine soldiers without endangering the civilian population.

Manila’s official death count has surpassed 160 people, including 21 “state personnel” and 89 terrorists. The AFP says that eight terrorists affiliated with Maute have voluntarily surrendered and urged others to do the same or face certain death. “These individuals have been talked to and debriefed and have provided very, very valuable intelligence,” spokesman Brig. Gen. Restituto Padilla said. He added that only about ten percent of the city’s territory is controlled by ISIS terrorists.

President Rodrigo Duterte announced a 60-day period of martial law over all of Mindanao last week in response to the ISIS attack, urging residents to evacuate. Eyewitnesses who fled the scene have told reporters that ISIS terrorists, many of them as young as thirteen, are forcing civilians to recite Islamic prayers or be killed. The discovery of a pile of bodies labeled “munafiq,” or “hypocrite,” suggest that the terrorists, in an attempt to purify the population, are killing Muslims who do not properly answer their religious questions. Eyewitnesses have said that Muslims are fleeing along with Christians and have taught Islamic prayers to Christians to protect them in the event of their capture.

While Maute and Abu Sayyaf are indigenous jihadist groups, Duterte announced Thursday that evidence suggests that the Marawi siege is a “purely ISIS” attack led by foreign fighters. “The rebellion in Mindanao, it’s not Maute,” he insisted. “The Marawi siege has long been planned. It could not be just a decision to ‘let’s go to Mindanao.’” Among the foreigners, according to Lorenzana, were Saudi, Yemeni, and Russian fighters.

The attack began last week as the Philippine police attempted to raid the hideout of Isnilon Hapilon, the head of Abu Sayyaf. Duterte’s government insists the attack was planned long before then, however. Duterte’s government has used the foreign nature of the invasion to attract support from indigenous Islamic groups. As Duterte spent more than two decades as mayor of Mindanao’s Davao City, he boasts friendly ties with separatist groups like the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) and the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF), who view him as more sympathetic to their concerns than the political elites from the nation’s north. Reports began to surface Wednesday that MILF and MNLF fighters had joined Philippine soldiers in fighting ISIS in Marawi.</s>(MARAWI, Philippines)— A Philippine military official says an air force airstrike killed 11 soldiers and wounded seven others in "friendly fire" as government forces struggled to rout the remaining Islamic extremists who laid a siege in a southern city for a week.

Military spokesman Brig. Gen. Restituto Padilla said Thursday a Marchetti S-211 jet was on a bombing run over militant positions in Marawi city Wednesday when one bomb hit an army position locked in close-range combat with the extremists.

Padilla says the plane made three successful bombing runs before the wayward bombing happened. He added the military has ordered an investigation.</s>(MARAWI, Philippines)—A Philippine air force plane dropping bombs on Islamic extremists killed 11 soldiers and wounded seven others in "friendly fire" as government forces were struggling to rout the militants who have laid a weeklong siege in a southern city, the military said Thursday.

The Marchetti S-211 jet was on a bombing run over militant positions in Marawi city Wednesday when one bomb hit army troops locked in close-range combat with the extremists who have taken cover in buildings and houses, military spokesman Brig. Gen. Restituto Padilla said. The plane had made three successful bombing runs before dropping the wayward bomb.

Padilla said the military has ordered an investigation of the friendly fire, which reflects the difficulty faced by government forces to contain the insurrection despite their overwhelming number and firepower.

"Despite the stringent procedure followed, there happens even with the best of armed forces, a case of friendly fire hitting our own troops," Padilla told The Associated Press.

Military chief of staff Gen. Eduardo Ano has ordered an investigation partly to prevent another incident, Padilla said, as government forces, backed by more than 30 assault aircraft, continue to advance toward the remaining positions of the militants, 89 of whom have been killed in the intense fighting with several others surrendering and now providing intelligence to the military. At least 25 soldiers and five policemen have been killed in clashes.</s>Manila: Eleven Philippine soldiers were killed and seven others injured in a "friendly fire" incident in the city of Marawi, defence officials said on Thursday.

Brigadier General Restituto Padilla told the media here that the soldiers were killed and wounded in airstrikes aimed at Islamist militants on Wednesday, Xinhua news agency reported.

"One of our SF-260 aircraft was conducting an airstrike (when) the last ordnance round it (fired) went wayward for an unknown reason and accidentally hit our ground forces," Padilla said.

"This is a case of friendly fire. It was an accident."

"Maybe the coordination was not properly done so we hit our own people. We don't know yet what exactly happened," he added.

Defence Secretary Delfin Lorenzana said the military is sending more troops to Marawi to fight the remaining 50 to 100 extremists still holed up in the embattled city.

The ongoing clashes have so far killed over 90 militants, including at least eight foreign fighters, 19 civilians and 36 security personnel.

On May 23, heavily-armed militants attacked Marawi -- which has a population of about 200,000 people -- when the military was searching for an Abu Sayyaf leader hidden in the city.</s>"A group of our own army men were killed by our own airstrike – 10 killed and 8 wounded," Delfin Lorenzana told reporters, as quoted by the local ABS-CBN radio.

The minister said the government of the Pacific Ocean archipelago was examining the incident.

The attack appears to be part of the ongoing operation to flush Maute militants, affiliated with the Islamic State terror group (Daesh), out of the city on the southern island of Mindanao.

Fighting broke out in Marawi last month when Islamists stormed the city, prompting Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte to declare martial law on the island. More than a hundred, including militants, have died in clashes.</s>A Philippine airstrike killed as many as 11 of the government’s own soldiers fighting to take the southern city of Marawi from Islamic State-linked militants.

The friendly-fire incident, about midday Wednesday, also wounded seven soldiers. The death toll—11, according to the military; 10, according to the defense secretary—increases by about half the number killed on the government side in the battle for Marawi, now at least 31. The...</s>Ten soldiers have been killed by a government air strike in the embattled city of Marawi in the Philippines.

Eight soldiers were also wounded in the "friendly fire" incident on Wednesday, said defence secretary Delfin Lorenzana, expressing remorse.

Over the last week militants allied to the so-called Islamic State have engaged in street battles with the army leaving more than 100 people dead.

It was sparked by the attempted capture of a top militant leader by the army.

"Yesterday we had a tragedy that involved our troops. A group of our military, Army men were hit by our own airstrike. We lost men, 10 killed and 8 wounded," Mr Lorenzana told reporters.

President Rodrigo Duterte declared martial law on southern Mindanao island last week where Marawi city is located.

The Philippines military has since been using armed forces and helicopter airstrikes to try and drive the militants out of the city.
Philippine Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana announces the deaths of ten soldiers in Marawi as a result of a "friendly fire" airstrike.