Philippine friendly fire kills 11

PHILIPPINE air strikes aimed at Islamist militants who are holding hostages as human shields killed 11 soldiers, authorities said yesterday, as they conceded hundreds of gunmen may have escaped a blockade.

The friendly fire deaths bring to 171 the number of people reported killed since militants waving the black flags of the Islamic State (IS) group began rampaging through the Muslim city of Marawi last week.

Shortly after the violence erupted, President Rodrigo Duterte imposed martial law across the southern region of Mindanao, home to 20 million people, to quell what he said was an IS bid to establish a base in the mainly Catholic Philippines.

But the government’s narrative of being in full control of Marawi took a hit yesterday when defence chiefs said 11 soldiers were killed in a misguided bombing mission.

“It’s very painful. It’s very sad to be hitting our own troops,” defence secretary Delfin Lorenzana told reporters in Manila.

“It’s sad but sometimes it happens in the fog of war.”

Lorenzana also warned that many militants might have escaped, despite checkpoints throughout the city and surrounding it.

“We have reports they are going to some of the towns around Marawi city,” Lorenzana said.

He said there were about 500 militants at the start of the unrest and only between 50 and 100 were believed to still be in Marawi.

According to the military, 120 gunmen have been killed, meaning as many as 330 remain unaccounted for and could have slipped out of the city.

Lorenzana said militants from Saudi Arabia, Chechnya, Yemen, Malaysia and Indonesia were among the dead.

The military has dropped bombs and fired rockets at the militants, who have been hiding in residential areas of Marawi where about 2 000 people are believed to be trapped.

The gunmen are also holding hostages, with some forced to speak on propaganda videos.

Local authorities repeated warnings that the trapped residents and hostages are in grave danger of being killed in the air assaults.