Philippines: 10 soldiers killed by 'friendly fire'

ZAMBOANGA CITY, Philippines Ten soldiers were killed and eight wounded in a “friendly fire” incident in the southern Philippines, Defense Secretary Delfine Lorenzana said Thursday. “Yesterday we had a tragedy that involved our troops,” he told a news conference in Manila, according to broadcaster GMA News. “A group of our military, army men were hit by our own airstrike. We lost men.” The casualties came in a military airstrike aiding operations to clear Marawi City on the southern island of Mindanao of Daesh-linked militants from the Abu Sayyaf and Maute groups. The government has started an investigation led by armed forces chief Gen. Eduardo Ano. Lorenzana said two aircraft were airborne at the time of the incident -- the first hit its target but the second missed and hit the soldiers. The minister raised the possibility of limiting airstrikes if government troops converge within cities controlled by militants. Fighting between government forces and the militants erupted on May 23. The casualty toll reached 164 on Thursday, military spokesman Col. Edgar Arevalo told radio station DZMM. The figure included 120 militants, 25 government troops and 19 civilians. - Foreign militants Lorenzana said that foreign fighters from as far away as Saudi Arabia and Yemen had been killed in the battle for Marawi City. The bodies of two Saudi Arabians, two Malaysians, two Indonesians, a Yemeni and a Chechen were among those discovered. “We don't have any record of them coming through the proper channel, through the airports,” Lorenzana said. “There's only one way, maybe coming from Indonesia or from Malaysia.” Foreign terrorists are reported to have joined Abu Sayyaf and Maute as Daesh is squeezed in Iraq and Syria. On Tuesday, two men were arrested in Indonesia on suspicion of helping terrorists travel to the Philippines. The Filipino military has said foreign terrorists have been in the country for a long time to help train local militants in skills such as bomb-making. Up to 400 marines were deployed to Marawi City as reinforcements Thursday after Ano set a Friday deadline to clear the city of militants. Meanwhile, the vice chairman of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), Ghazali Jaafar, appealed to Maute to release a priest and other civilians captured in the early stages of the fighting. “We appeal… on humanitarian reasons and because this is what our religion Islam tells us,” Jaafar said in an interview on ABS-CBN News. “Please, release him now, immediately.” Jaafar, whose organization was the largest insurgent group in the region before embracing peace in 2014, said Father Teresito Suganob had been an active supporter of the peace process in Mindanao. A video of Suganob was released by his captors on Tuesday in which he called on the government to stop its offensive in Marawi City. President Rodrigo Duterte and the MILF have agreed to establish a “peace corridor” to help civilians affected by the fighting.