US advisers report today to AFP brass

ZAMBOANGA CITY — Twenty-three US anti-terrorist experts flew out of Edwin Andrews Air Base in Zamboanga City for Metro Manila yesterday to brief Armed Forces officials led by chief of staff Gen. Diomedio Villanueva on their assessment of the military offensive against the Abu Sayyaf in the jungles of Basilan.

Marine Col. Francisco Gudani told reporters yesterday the American military advisers consulted with field commanders during their four-day tour of combat zones in the rebel-infested province.

"They are very quick to identify the problem regarding the shortage of resources when it comes to mobility, inter-island vessels, cargo planes, helicopters and trucks," he said.

"All these mobility assets, ground, air and sea, will form part of their recommendation plus the observation to the operation aspect, command relationship, our strength, our weaknesses, things to sustain, and things to improve on," he added.

After meeting with Villanueva and other top military officials, the 23 US anti-terrorist experts will fly to Honolulu, Hawaii to report to Adm. Dennis Blair, commander of US forces in the Pacific.

The experts arrived on Oct. 29, a day before 15 foreign military attachés and observers flew here to assess the AFP’s campaign against local terrorists.

The attachés, including those from the US, Japan, South Korea, China, France, Britain, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, India and Indonesia, arrived amid tight security at around 10 a.m. and were brought to the Southcom headquarters for a closed-door briefing.

Military sources said the discussions centered on the operation against the Abu Sayyaf but the recent kidnapping of Italian missionary priest Guiseppe Pierantoni was also partly discussed.

Gudani said hours after the American advisers and Filipino troops left Maluson town in Basilan last Tuesday, fighting broke out between Marines and Abu Sayyaf terrorists.

"We heard it was heavy fighting," he said.

The fighting was the result of a "long reconnaissance patrol" which the Marines had been conducting in the area, he added.

Gudani said he was still awaiting a report from the Marine commander in the field as to what really happened and how many terrorists were killed.

While the US military advisers were touring combat zones, unidentified terrorists also bombed a number of commercial establishments in Zamboanga City, killing at least five people and wounding at least 56 others.

Police said Wednesday they are looking into possible links between the bombers and Osama bin Laden, the principal suspect in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in the United States.

Documents seized from one of the three suspects showed that the group planned further bomb attacks in Zamboanga City as well as in Metro Manila, police added.

Police said they have detained the three, including Muslim convert Marvin Geongzon, in whose house a search turned up "assorted explosive devices and a list and sketch of their bombing targets in Zamboanga City and Metro Manila."

The documents also showed possible links between the suspects and Bin Laden’s al-Qaeda network, police added.

In Basilan, troops arrested a suspected Abu Sayyaf member at dawn Wednesday in an island barangay off the capital city of Isabela.

Police said Ibsar Ibrahim, 37, comes from Barangay Carbon in Malamawi, hometown of Abu Sayyaf spokesman Abu Sabaya.