- Title: PHILIPPINES: U.S. AND FILIPINO TROOPS LAUNCH NEW ANTI-TERRORISM EXERCISE
- Date: 23rd February 2003
- Summary: (W2) ZAMBOANGA, PHILIPPINES (FEBRUARY 23, 2003) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 1. SV PHILIPPINE GENERAL NARCISO ABAYA, SOUTHERN COMMAND CHIEF WALKING WITH COLONEL DOUGLAS LENGENFELDER, COMMANDER JOINT OPERATIONS TASK FORCE 0.04 2. SV FILIPINO AND AMERICAN SOLDIERS SECURING PREMISES 0.07 3. SV ABAYA AND LENGENFELDER ENTER CEREMONIAL HALL 0.11
- Embargoed: 10th March 2003 12:00
- Keywords:
- Location: ZAMBOANGA, PHILIPPINES
- Country: Philippines
- Reuters ID: LVA7D2GI59YVMVE66P04AVR1F5ZN
- Story Text: U.S. and Filipino troops have formally launched new
anti-terrorism exercise amid controversy over proposals for a
more aggressive American role in fighting Muslim militants in
the southern Philippines.
Soldiers armed with assault rifles and army snipers
atop a three-storey house guarded a military camp in Zamboanga
on Sunday (February 23), where the two militaries vowed to
crush the al Qaeda-linked Abu Sayyaf guerrillas.
""The U.S. cost is 25 million dollars. The Philippine cost
is six weeks which each AFP battalion looses in the field but
that is a small price to pay to refine counter terrorism
capabilities of your military," U.S. Air Force special forces
Colonel Douglas Lengendfelder told 100 Filipino and a dozen
U.S. soldiers at the opening ceremony.
Philippine southern military commander Lieutenant-General
Narciso Abaya said the training -- involving close-quarter
combat, demolition and survival techniques -- symbolised the
two countries' determination to defeat terror.
"Without the Balikatan 03-1 we have already neutralized
Susucan, so all the more if we have Balikatan 03-1 We hope to
neutralize the other leaders and perhaps put an end with
finality to this terrorism to this Abu Sayyaf," Abaya said.
Balikatan means 'shoulder-to-shoulder' in Filipino and was
the code name given to counter-terrorism exercise last year
held on Basilan island near Jolo which involved more than
1,000 U.S. soldiers and was described by the two militaries as
a success for helping drive the bulk of Abu Sayyaf guerrillas,
including troops loyal to a commander called Susucan, out of
Basilan.
About 300 U.S. soldiers, including a core of 70 special
forces trainers, will take part in the latest exercises to be
held at this Philippine camp and in rainforests on the
outskirts of the largely Christian city of Zamboanga.
Actual training will start on Monday.
But controversy swirled over a U.S. plan to field about
1,750 American troops, including elite units, in operations
with Filipino forces battling the Abu Sayyaf, a mainly
kidnap-for-ransom group linked by Washington to Osama bin
Laden's al Qaeda network.
In a major strategic shift from training to fighting, some
350 U.S. Special Operations soldiers will be sent to Jolo
island near Zamboanga to help subdue the rebels, Pentagon
officials said in Washington on Friday.
Jolo is a jungle-clad, mist-shrouded island 960 km (595
miles) south of Manila and a stronghold of the Abu Sayyaf,
which enjoys strong support from the local Muslim population.
Manila newspapers warned the deployment of U.S. troops for
offensive operations would violate this country's
constitution, which bars foreign combat troops from Philippine
soil.
"The Pentagon disclosure is only the latest confirmation
that, indeed, the Ugly American is back: loud, self-absorbed,
a gratuitous bully but this time wearing a ten-gallon hat
(cowboy hat)," the Philippine Daily Inquirer said in an
editorial on Sunday.
Philippine officials said the terms of U.S. military
deployment on Jolo were still being finalised. They stressed
they would not break the constitutional ban on foreign
soldiers.
"We will not do anything that violates the constitution,"
Defence Secretary Angelo Reyes said on Friday.
A counter-terrorism exercise held on Basilan island near
Jolo last year and involving more than 1,000 U.S. soldiers was
described by the two militaries as a success for helping drive
the bulk of Abu Sayyaf guerrillas out of Basilan.
The Abu Sayyaf, which claims to fight for an Islamic state
in the south of the mainly Catholic Philippines, is estimated
to number between 300 and 400 fighters.
Most of them are believed now to be entrenched in the Jolo
jungles, where they have held three Indonesian seamen and four
Filipino women Christian evangelists hostage for months.
The group burst onto the world stage in 2000 when it
seized 21 mostly foreign hostages from the neighbouring
Malaysian dive resort of Sipadan and hid them in the Jolo
jungles.
They freed the foreigners four months later in exchange
for millions of dollars in ransom.
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