RP vows to protect American soldiers
RP vows to protect American soldiers
Agencies, Angeles City, Philippines
The Philippine military will step up security to protect Americans, following news of hostilities against U.S. citizens, officials said on Friday.
The attacks have coincided with the launch of a Philippine- U.S. military exercise Balikatan (shoulder-to-shoulder) on Thursday in the southern Philippine island of Mindanao aimed at stamping out extremist Abu Sayyaf rebels in the south. The latest incident involved a light attack on a transport plane carrying U.S. troops.
"We have doubled the security of the Americans here so there won't be any repeats of these kinds of incidents again," Philippine Army Chief Maj. Gen. Jaime de Los Santos told reporters at a former U.S. military base in northern Pampanga where the damaged plane returned safely. No one was hurt.
Meanwhile, at least five members of the Abu Sayyaf group were killed on early Friday in a gunbattle on Basilan island, where the guerrillas are holding two Americans and a Filipino hostage, a military commander said.
The firefight came a day after the Philippines and the United States formally opened a training exercise aimed at wiping out the Abu Sayyaf, which has been linked to the al-Qaeda terror network.
Separately, the Indonesian navy has deployed three warships in waters bordering the Philippines to prevent possible entry by beleaguered Abu Sayyaf members into Indonesian territory, a report said on Friday.
The ships have been patrolling the sea off Sangihe island on the northern tip of Indonesia, said First Admiral Kenny Welong in the Sinar Harapan evening daily.
In another development, Philippine troops spotted a woman they believe was U.S. missionary Gracia Burnham, who was kidnapped with her husband Martin in May last year by Moro militants, military officials said on Friday.
She was sighted on Jan. 23 on the southern island of Basilan just before a gunfight broke out between Abu Sayyaf rebels who are holding the couple and the troops, Captain Rommel Pagayon, battalion officer of the army based in Basilan, told Reuters.
The soldiers saw two females riding on a horse and one of them was a Caucasian, he said.
"There's no other white woman there," Pagayon said, pointing to the area near a mountain in Tuburan in Basilan where the gunfight occurred.
He said two Abu Sayyaf rebels were killed in the fight and three soldiers were wounded. There were no reports about Martin.