MANILA, June 1 (Xinhua) -- Ten soldiers have been killed and eight others wounded on Wednesday during a government airstrike in Marawi City in the southern Philippines as the military fired rockets to flush out the remaining militants, the Philippine defense chief said on Thursday.

Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana broke the news during a speech on Thursday, saying," (on Wednesday) we had a tragedy that involved our troops."

"A group of of our military, Army men were hit by our own airstrike. We lost men, 10 killed and eight wounded," he said.

He added, "It is sad but sometimes that happens, sometimes in the tug of war. Maybe the coordination was not properly done so we hit our own people."

The military is expected to elaborate more on the incident later Thursday.