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.