U.S. military to launch war on terrorism in RP
U.S. military to launch war on terrorism in RP
Agencies, Zamboanga, Philippines
The commander in chief of U.S. special forces met his troops in
the southern Philippines on Thursday, 72 hours before the United
States opens a second front in its global war on terror.
U.S. Air Force Gen. Charles Holland held closed-door talks
with top Philippine generals, including armed forces chief
Diomedio Villanueva, and then joined his soldiers for lunch at
local military headquarters in southern Zamboanga city.
"He is here to visit his troops, find out what they need and
what are the things to be done," Villanueva said after the talks
with Holland, a highly decorated soldier and veteran of 79 combat
missions in Southeast Asia.
"I don't think right now there are snags," Villanueva said.
On Sunday, a 32-member advance party of the U.S. special forces,
an elite command formed of experts in unconventional war and used
by the United States as a strike force in global hot spots, will
move to nearby Basilan island to launch the start of a new
chapter in Washington's campaign against terror.
About 160 U.S. special forces soldiers are to be deployed on
the largely Muslim island to train and upgrade the skills of
Filipino troops in fighting Abu Sayyaf guerrillas, who have been
holding hostage a U.S. missionary couple and a Filipina nurse for
more than eight months.
The United States has linked the Abu Sayyaf to Saudi-born
militant Osama bin Laden and his al-Qaeda network, prime suspects
in the Sept. 11 attacks on New York and Washington.
The deployment of the U.S. special forces on Basilan will mark
the most significant expansion of the United States war against
terrorism, after its destruction of the Taliban regime in
Afghanistan.
The main bulk of the special forces soldiers is expected to
arrive in Zamboanga on Monday prior to their deployment on
Basilan, a turtle-shaped island of about 300,000 people and three
times the size of Singapore.
A few hundred Abu Sayyaf guerrillas, with a hard core of 70 to
80 fighters, operate on the island and command mastery of its
mountainous, jungle-clad terrain.
The United States has been providing weapons to the poorly
equipped Philippine military. During a White House visit last
November, President Gloria Macapagal secured $100 million in
assistance.
Several dozen Muslim protesters, concerned that any attack on
American troops could escalate conflict and tension in the
southern Philippines, rallied on Thursday outside Isabela, the
Basilan provincial capital, chanting "Allahu Akbar (God is great)
and "U.S. troops out!" before dispersing peacefully.