Rebels warn of attacks on U.S. targets

Rebels warn of attacks on U.S. targets

PHILIPPINES: Communist rebels in the Philippines will attack American troops and act against U.S. business interests there if U.S. forces join the local military's fight against them, a rebel spokesman said.

"Revolutionary and progressive forces must act to block the aggressive war even before it is launched and thwart it the moment U.S. troops enter the Philippines," communist party spokesman Gregorio Rosal said in a statement.

The statement followed moves by the U.S. government last week to put the party and its armed wing, the New People's Army (NPA), on a terrorist blacklist under a law allowing Washington to block any of their U.S. assets.

The Philippine constitution bars the presence of foreign combat troops in the country and Manila and Washington both say American forces have no intention of fighting on Philippine soil.

But U.S. special forces recently ended six months of training Philippine troops in counter terrorism, with the focus of those exercises being Muslim rebel and kidnap groups in the south of the mainly Christian country. -- Reuters