Killed in friendly fire

MANILA: An air strike on Islamist militants holed up in the southern Philippine city of Marawi mistakenly killed two soldiers and wounded 11 others yesterday, a military spokesperson said. This has been the second accident involving a military aircraft hitting ground troops since the conflict started in May. The air force’s public affairs chief, Colonel Edgard Arevalo, said a military bomber missed its air strike target around and hit buildings near the soldiers’ position. Arevalo said: “The bomb was 250m off target. Debris from heavily reinforced buildings hit two of our personnel.”