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Philippines Calls For U.S. Help To End Hostage Crisis
MANILA, June 29 (News Agencies) - Philippine President Gloria Arroyo said Friday she had called in U.S. government help as a crisis involving guerrillas holding 23 American and Filipino hostages intensified.
Arroyo's announcement came as security forces said they were investigating a threat of bombings in the capital Manila to take the pressure off guerrillas under siege from pursuing troops on southern Basilan island.
"I have asked the U.S. to help with their surveillance expertise and in supplying us with some modern equipment and their response has been positive," she said.
Arroyo did not elaborate on the type of assistance the United States was providing against the Abu Sayyaf, a guerrilla band which claims to be Muslim, that has killed four Filipino hostages and claims to have beheaded one of three American captives.
Washington sent FBI agents to the Philippines soon after the hostages were taken nearly five weeks ago, but U.S. embassy spokesman Michael Anderson refused to disclose details of further aid.
"We remain in close touch with the government of the Philippines, which has the lead in resolving this situation, but I am not going to answer more specifically," he said.
Police said the arrest in Manila of Abu Sayyaf intelligence officer Harsim Abdulajid had uncovered an apparent Abu Sayyaf plan to stage a series of bombings in Manila.
Intelligence agencies were following leads "and we hope they get some results within three days or a week," police spokesman Director-General Thompson Lantion said.
There have been repeated clashes on Basilan island in the past week with the death toll mounting to at least 39 as the armed forces said troops were nearing the rebel camp.
Three soldiers and an undetermined number of Abu Sayyaf gunmen were killed in two battles late Thursday. The rebel casualties were taken away by retreating Abu Sayyaf members, the military said.
The deaths raised the reported toll to 19 government soldiers and at least 20 Abu Sayyaf rebels, with more than 75 wounded on both sides in a month of fighting since the guerrillas embarked on a kidnapping spree.
Two of the most recent military fatalities were former rebels who joined the government forces as part of a 1996 peace accord between Manila and the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF).
The Abu Sayyaf are a breakaway faction of the MNLF and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), which inked a truce with Manila last week.
A spokesman for the armed forces Southern Command accused remnants of the MILF and MNLF of supporting the Abu Sayyaf, and said the military could not be held responsible if the peace accords were breached.
"As far as we are concerned, we are pursuing the Abu Sayyaf and anybody who is armed along the way, within the area where the operation is being conducted, will be engaged by our forces," Lieutenant Colonel Danilo Servando said.
Armed forces chief of staff General Diomedio Vollanueva said: "We cannot distinguish the Abu Sayyaf from the MILF and the MNLF in the heat of combat."
The government has sent 5,000 troops to Basilan to rescue the hostages and destroy the Abu Sayyaf, who began their kidnapping spree on May 27th.
Fighting has been stepped up in the past six days since the military said it had engaged the guerrillas' hit-and-run perimeter guards on a jungle-clad mountain in the center of the island.
The guerrillas are believed to have split into two groups with their captives and it is not known if any hostages have been harmed in the shootings.
But local radio reports, quoting an unnamed Abu Sayyaf emissary, said some of the hostages, including Americans Martin and Gracia Burnham, were suffering from malaria.
Armed forces spokesman Brigadier General Edilberto Adan said troops were closing in on the main band of guerrillas, who are holding the Burnhams and eight Filipinos. The whereabouts of the second group, holding 13 plantation workers, was not known, he said.
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