U.S. Military Advisers In Philippines
At least 16 U.S. soldiers landed in the southern Philippines on Friday as local troops battled Muslim extremists holding two American missionaries 12 miles away.
It was unclear why the Americans were dispatched amid an ongoing clash with Abu Sayyaf rebels that left at least 11 guerrillas dead and one captured since it began around dawn.
U.S. Embassy spokeswoman Karen Kelley said the soldiers were "not combat elements. These folks are on routine military exchange activity."
The United States has agreed to provide equipment and training for the Philippine military, one of Asia's poorest, in its pursuit of the Abu Sayyaf, which has been linked to Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida terror network. Local military officials have repeatedly said U.S. troops will not be involved in combat with Muslim rebels in the Philippines.
President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo said she didn't know "the specifics" of the U.S. soldiers but "we have agreed that we will really listen to U.S. experts and their advice. These soldiers are there, for one thing, for advice."
She also said "we shouldn't be surprised if we see a lot of American soldiers showing up in Zamboanga" to train Filipino troops.
Officials have said they hope to gain the release of Martin and Gracia Burnham, of Wichita, Kansas, and Philippine nurse Deborah Yap, by Christmas. The Burnhams have been held hostage for more than six months.
Elmer Cato, a Philippine official who monitors joint exercises with U.S. forces, said the American MC-130 transport plane picked up the American troops in Manila.
He said he was informed the Americans were involved in a followup to an earlier mission to assess the Philippines' military needs to fight the Abu Sayyaf.
The troops, in camouflage fatigues and backpacks but with no visible firearms or insignia, landed at the military air base in Zamboanga, site of the Philippine military's Southern Command, late Friday morning.
Near Isabela City, 12 miles south of Zamboanga, Filipino forces killed at least 11 rebels in an ongoing battle with the Abu Sayyaf, officers said. Two soldiers were wounded.
Military spokesman Brig. Gen. Edilberto Adan suggested soldiers were nearing the hostages' holding place. He said the guerrilla unit fighting with soldiers was acting as a first line of defense for Abu Sayyaf leader Abu Sabaya.
"The group is being led by a major commander who provides perimeter security to Sabaya's lair where the hostages are being kept," Adan said.
Local army commander Col. Hermogenes Esperon said fighting started at 6:30 a.m. in the Kumalarang suburb of Isabela city, the capital of the island province of Basilan about 590 miles south of Manila. He said the rebels fled to other areas and the fighting continued.
He said soldiers intercepted rebel radio messages requesting reinforcements from other Abu Sayyaf units.
Basilan police Senior Supt. Bensali Jabarani said police were evacuating some residents of Kumalarang.
Esperon sai fighting started when soldiers ran into an Abu Sayyaf unit while seeking signs of the Burnhams, who were abducted May 27 along with 17 other people from a southwestern beach resort.
Yap was taken several days later in an Abu Sayyaf raid on a hospital.
He said his men captured another and seized night-vision equipment and a heavy recoilless rifle.
More than 7,000 soldiers are scouring Basilan's jungle-covered mountains for the three hostages, the last of scores taken in a kidnapping spree. Most hostages were released or escaped, but others have been beheaded, including Guillermo Sobero of Corona,
California.
The Abu Sayyaf claims to be fighting for Muslim independence but the government calls them mere bandits.
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