Friendly Fire Kills Soldiers in Marawi: Philippine Officials
2017.06.01
Marawi, Philippines

Eleven soldiers were mistakenly killed by bombs from government aircraft, Philippine officials said Thursday, as a military offensive lasting more than a week had not dislodged all Islamic State- (IS-) linked fighters from the besieged southern city of Marawi.
Officials also announced Thursday that militants from five countries, including Indonesia and Malaysia, were among 120 enemy combatants killed during 10 days of fighting in the largely deserted city on Mindanao island. A total of 39 military and police personnel, as well as 19 civilians, have been killed.
Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana said he had yet to talk to President Rodrigo Duterte about what happened when bombs hit government forces in Marawi on Wednesday. Seven other soldiers were wounded in the friendly fire incident.
The error may have occurred because the aircraft sent to strike the target dropped conventional bombs after the military’s precision-guided missiles had run out.
He said an investigation had been launched to determine what went wrong, but he admitted airstrikes had to be limited going forward to avoid other potentially disastrous mistakes.
Lorenzana said that, while he was saddened by the incident, “sometimes it happens in the fog of war.
“I know he feels badly and sad about this,” Lorenzana said of Duterte. “This happens even on ground.
“It’s very sad to be hitting our own troops,” he added.
The deaths add to the growing frustration after Filipino Abu Sayyaf gunmen, backed by Maute militants, traded gunfire with government forces who were attempting to arrest Isnilon Hapilon, the acknowledged Philippine leader of the Islamic State.
The gunmen apparently were reinforced by foreign fighters, Lorenzana said, noting that militants slain to date during the fighting in Marawi include nationals from Malaysia, Indonesia as well as from Saudi Arabia, Yemen and Chechnya.
It was not clear how many foreigners were involved in the fighting and how they managed to enter the southern Philippines without being detected, or where their arms came from.
But Hapilon, who is on the U.S. government’s list of most-wanted terrorists, is believed to have received funding from the Islamic State in the Middle East, and his original plan was to take over Marawi and fly the black Islamic State flag there, the defense minister said.
Malaysia’s deputy prime minister said Philippine security forces had identified two Malaysian militants killed earlier and were identifying a third citizen who was killed in the fighting. It forced President Duterte to impose martial law over the entire island of Mindanao, home to 20 million people.
Soldiers, police and local government volunteers rescue civilians trapped inside their homes in the southern Philippine city of Marawi, June 1, 2017. [Mark Navales/BenarNews]
Fighting rages
Since the fighting broke out on May 23, most of the 200,000 residents of predominantly Muslim Marawi have abandoned their homes, but more than 3,000 people remain trapped in the middle of the gunbattle, Red Cross officials said.
Among those trapped was a Catholic priest who was abducted as fighting raged last week. The priest had appealed for the bombardment to stop, saying he was being held hostage along with more 200 other people.
While the armed forces said they had retaken about 90 percent of the city, the rebels have hunkered inside fortified buildings.
“They are employing hostile sniper fires and IEDs (improvised explosive devices) against everyone – from government security forces, to relief and rescue workers, to civilians – who get in the way of their fanatical desire to dismember Marawi from the Philippines and establish it as an ISIS province in this part of Asia,” the armed forces said in a statement Thursday, using another acronym for the Islamic State.
The military said it employed armor, artillery and airpower capabilities to support infantry units in a bid to breach fortified walls and undergrounds of buildings that were built like “virtual fortresses.”
Lorenzana, the defense chief, said officials had given themselves a deadline of defeating the rebels by Friday, but the latest debacle could force them to adjust the timetable for Sunday.
“It’s turning out (that) one strong point held by Maute is very hard to crack – across the bridge from the city hall,” he said. “We’re pouring in more battalions today.”
He said the fighters have only “one small pocket of resistance” and that if ground troops managed to surround the area, then airstrikes would no longer be needed.
“They’ve holed up in reinforced buildings,” Lorenzana said. “Even our cannons have not been effective. They have so many snipers shooting at our soldiers.”
The armed forces, in a statement, said it would “incessantly push” forward to retake the remaining part of Malawi and rescue the people believed held hostage by the gunmen.
Aerial bombardments continued Thursday, despite the earlier error, though much less pronounced.
Troops brought in a column of tanks to pound rebel positions and sporadic clashes have continued.
A brief lull in the fighting has allowed humanitarian workers to rescue those who are trapped.
Rescuers on Thursday managed to reach residents from an area that was controlled by rebels and the evacuees had to clamber out of a window or jump from rooftops to a waiting vehicle.
Zia Alonto Adiong, a spokesman for the provincial government, said the rebels remained entrenched in the city center.
“They are sending a signal outside they are powerful enough,” he said.
Lt. Col. Joar Herrera, spokesman for the 103rd Infantry Brigade, said more than 900 trapped civilians had been rescued so far.
“We have reports that various lawless group have joined the Maute group. We are validating the presence of other armed groups,” he said.