U.S. advisers will help train Philippine troops who are battling extremists
Staff and wire reports
ZAMBOANGA, Philippines — U.S. military advisers will begin training Philippine
troops who are fighting Muslim extremists with alleged links to Osama bin Laden’s
al-Qaida network, Philippine officials said.
A contingent of five advisers arrived in the southern Philippines on Tuesday, joining
about 25 other U.S. troops who arrived last week to train Philippine troops fighting Abu
Sayyaf rebels.
Philippines military spokesman Lt. Col. Darwin Guerra said the five U.S. soldiers
arrived in the southern city of Zamboanga to meet with senior soldiers.
Cato Elmer, executive director of the Philippines Visiting Forces Agreement Commission,
said the United States has been assisting in the troops’ training.
"One mission for them would be a follow-up check to see how effective they’ve
been," Elmer said.
Elmer said U.S. troops aren’t near the front lines of the fighting, however, and
most of the training takes place at Fort Magsaysay, about a 90-minute drive from the
former Clark Air Base. There, they’ve been training Philippine troops in the Light
Reaction Company, who are fighting the rebels on Basilan island.
Elmer said U.S. special forces are also equipping Philippine troops with about $1
million of military gear, including assault rifles, pistols and body armor and possibly
some night-vision equipment.
"The advisers are actually there to assess the needs of the [Philippine]
military," he said.
He said some of the needs being posted to U.S. forces include air assets, but Elmer
stopped short of saying the Philippines is asking for direct U.S. air support.
"I’m sure the needs would include helicopters," Elmer said.
"We’ve been asking the U.S. to provide excess defense articles. We’ve been
told Washington would turn over some UH-1s."
Meanwhile, Elmer said U.S. forces continue to use the Philippines as a refueling base
for aircraft headed to the Middle East. He said they are anticipating Marine FA-18s and
C-130s from Iwakuni Marine Corps Air Station, Japan.
Zamboanga is about 12 miles north of Basilan island, where soldiers are battling Muslim
extremists of the Abu Sayyaf group; Philippine officials say Abu Sayyaf has links to bin
Laden, the prime suspect in the Sept. 11 terror attacks in the United States.
Two Americans and at least 10 Filipinos are being held hostage by Abu Sayyaf. The
Americans — missionaries Martin and Gracia Burnham of Kansas — were kidnapped by
the rebels from an island resort on May 27 and taken to Basilan.
The rebels claimed to have beheaded a third American, Guillermo Sobero, whose remains
were found in a Basilan mountain area earlier this month.
Abu Sayyaf rebels claim to be fighting for Muslim independence in Mindanao, home to the
predominantly Roman Catholic Philippines’ Muslim minority. The government dismisses
them as bandits.
On Basilan, a captured Abu Sayyaf member died Tuesday after a grenade he grabbed from a
soldier exploded in his hand, said military Col. Roland Detabali.
He said the man had been leading soldiers to a hideout where he claimed the Americans
were being held and grabbed the grenade in an apparent escape attempt.
Mark Oliva and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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