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Communist Leader Threatens US Troops In Philippines
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| Filipinos protest by the U.S. embassy in Manila |
MANILA, Jan. 30 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - A communist leader warned U.S. troops on the eve of a joint military mission in the southern Philippines that they faced armed attack if they strayed into their zone of influence.
The Communist New People's Army (NPA) opposes the deployment of about 600 U.S. troops in joint operations with the Philippines army to crush the Abu Sayyaf Moro separatist group. However, NPA leader Gregorio Rosal said his group will not go out of its way to seek the U.S. troops out and attack them, AFP reported.
"It is possible that they would not enter our territories," Rosal said over DZMM radio in Manila in a telephone interview, citing statements by the two governments that the operations would be limited in areas where Abu Sayyaf operates. They include the mainly Muslim island of Basilan, where the fighters hold two American missionaries hostage.
However, should the U.S. troops venture into the main southern island of Mindanao, "they may stray into NPA zones," Rosal said. "Naturally, if they enter these areas armed, they will be facing an armed force as well."
Rosal, head of NPA units operating in provinces south of Manila, said the 12,000-member Maoist army "strongly opposes" the U.S. military deployments. "If this military intervention escalates, we will resist it because the Abu Sayyaf is not the real target," he said, repeating previous allegations from the left that the U.S. troops could eventually turn their attention to the NPA.
Communist leaders have made threats to disrupt the operations, Filipino military spokesman, Brigadier General Edilberto Adan, said Wednesday. "We shall be prepared to meet them," he warned, while stressing that communist fighters are not known to operate in these parts. "We do not foresee any serious threats arising out of the whole exercises," he added.
The U.S. deployment has provoked opposition within the Philippines, however, and the operations are only going ahead after a one-day delay caused by negotiations on the terms of the U.S. forces mission. Protests against the U.S. presence continued Wednesday with several dozen students burning a U.S. flag outside the American embassy in Manila.
Around 140 American troops, a vanguard for a force that will eventually number more than 600, were already in Zamboanga, U.S. officials said.
The southern city is the Philippine military's main base for operations against Abu Sayyaf, a group notorious for a spate of kidnappings which both Manila and Washington claim to have links to Osama bin Laden's Al-Qaeda network. The group's current hostages include a pair of U.S. missionaries.
"Every American soldier that is here is a volunteer and they're excited about the opportunity to help our long-term allies, the Philippines," the overall commander of the U.S. contingent, Brigadier General Donald Wurster, said. "We're looking forward with our counterparts to do something worthwhile."
But despite the logistics build-up, U.S. military spokeswoman, Major Cynthia Teramae, said joint field operations against Abu Sayyaf in the jungles of nearby Basilan island were still some distance away.
Initial cooperation would focus on training, with the development of nightime operating capabilities a key goal. "My understanding is the Armed Forces of the Philippines do not have the capability to fight at night," she said. "If we are able to share the opportunity to include flying helicopters at night, that would give you the upper hand."
The importance Washington attaches to the operation was underlined by U.S. President, George W. Bush, in his State of the Union address. "While the most visible military action is in Afghanistan, America is acting elsewhere," he said. "We now have troops in the Philippines helping to train that country's armed forces to go after terrorist cells that have executed an American and still hold hostages."
Filipino Defense Secretary Angelo Reyes told a congressional hearing in Manila that the operation would start Thursday and end six months later, whether or not the U..S missionaries, Martin and Gracia Burnham, are rescued or the killers of a third American hostage, Guillermo Sobero, are arrested.
Reyes said that towards the latter part of the exercise, U.S. Special Forces troops would be assigned in groups of twos to join Filipino infantry companies in Basilan to observe anti-guerrilla operations. "They (Filipino forces) will do the fighting, not the American soldiers," President Gloria Arroyo, currently on a visit to Canada, said at a news conference in Ottawa.
The aim, she said, was to ensure the Filipino soldiers' "capability will be enhanced with additional training, additional technical assistance, additional material and additional intelligence fusion" with the U.S. forces.
Local military sources said that among the problems that had to be ironed out was whether U.S. troops would take orders from Philippine commanders and vice-versa. An unspecified compromise had been reached on these issues, according to Filipino military sources.
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