U.S., Philippines agree start of anti-terror games
U.S., Philippines agree start of anti-terror games
Reuters
Zamboanga, Philippines
The United States and the Philippines will formally start joint
training exercises on Thursday to fight Moro extremists in the
south after ironing out final details, military officials said on
Tuesday.
About 600 U.S. soldiers are to take part in the exercises
which represent the most significant expansion of the U.S. war on
terror after Afghanistan.
"Among friends, anything could be resolved," Philippine Army
Brig. Gen. Emmanuel Teodosio told reporters on Tuesday after
talks with U.S. Army Brig. Gen. Donald Wurster, chief of U.S.
Pacific Command special operations.
Teodosio and Wurster will be co-directors of the exercises
expected to last six months and which had been expected to start
on Wednesday.
The Philippines has long battled Moro militants in the south
and one group, Abu Sayyaf, suspected by the United States of
having links to Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda network, will be a
focus of the training exercises in the former U.S. colony.
"The opening ceremony will push through on Thursday morning.
We were able to thrash out some of the minor hitches...Everything
has been resolved," Teodosio said. The hitches involved the
number of Americans taking part in the exercises and schedules.
Officials of the two countries had previously said a total of
660 U.S. soldiers would take part in the exercises, with about a
tenth of them going out on patrols with Filipino soldiers on
Basilan, about 900 km (550 miles) south of Manila.
The exercises also call for about 160 U.S. Special Forces
soldiers to join Filipino troops in patrol in the jungles of
mountainous Basilan, near Zamboanga, where Abu Sayyaf guerrillas
have been holding a U.S. missionary couple and a Filipina nurse
hostage for months.
Three U.S. military transport aircraft flew in dozens of
soldiers and equipment into Zamboanga on Tuesday in a continuing
build-up ahead of Thursday's exercises, which remain
controversial.
Critics of President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo have slammed the
U.S. military presence as a violation of the constitution, which
bars the presence of foreign combat troops unless under a formal
treaty.
Arroyo, during her visit to London on Monday, said the U.S.
forces would only act as trainers and not front-line fighters.