OV-10s grounded after Zambo mishap

The Philippine Air Force (PAF) grounded yesterday its OV-10 Bronco ground attack planes after aerial bombing runs against Abu Sayyaf bandits accidentally killed a soldier, officials said yesterday.

Air Force spokesman Maj. Restituto Padilla said the attack planes were grounded after one OV-10 plane accidentally dropped a bomb on government troops during an operation in Kabugan island near Zamboanga City.

"It was purely an accident. The aircraft aborted its delivery (of a bomb) to allow a second aircraft to deliver its load, but while it was ascending, the bomb fell," Padilla said. "Things like this happen in Iraq, in Afghanistan."

Despite the grounding of the OV-10 planes, however, Padilla said the military will continue its air operations, using helicopters, against a group of Abu Sayyaf extremists who were sighted at the Zamboanga peninsula.

Padilla initially reported seven soldiers were wounded in the accidental bombing, but later said the seven soldiers were mistakenly included in a report on a separate gunbattle with the Abu Sayyaf on Wednesday.

Two Air Force planes on Thursday bombed suspected positions of a group headed by Isnilon Hapilon, one of five Abu Sayyaf leaders wanted for a kidnapping spree, said Army First Infantry Division chief Maj. Gen. Trifonio Salazar.

Hapilon is believed to be involved in the kidnapping of 21 guests from the Dos Palmas resort off Palawan and the killing of two Americans, Martin Burnham and Guillermo Sobero, Sobero was beheaded shortly after they were abducted in May 2001, while Martin Burnham was killed in a military rescue attempt on June 7, 2002.

Burnham’s wife, Gracia, was rescued by Filipino troops who had received training from US military advisers deployed on the Abu Sayyaf stronghold of Basilan island.

The Abu Sayyaf is known mainly for kidnapping foreigners and Christians in Mindanao and then holding them for hefty ransom payments. They have also beheaded poor hostages who could not pay ransom.

The group has been loosely linked to the al-Qaeda network of Osama bin Laden by both Washington and Manila.

About 1,000 US troops were deployed on Basilan last year to train Filipino soldiers. The two countries are due to hold a second round of exercises later this year.

Military efforts to crush the Abu Sayyaf were stepped up late last month after the bandits beheaded two men and a woman in Sibulao, a village near Zamboanga City.

Last week, troops began scouring the shore and interior of near the town of Palimbang, Sultan Kudarat, about 200 kilometers from Zamboanga City, after top Abu Sayyaf leader Khaddafi Janjalani and 70 of his henchmen were sighted there.

Janjalani is also one of the five Abu Sayyaf leaders wanted by the US government.

Washington offered a bounty of up to $5 million for their capture. One of the leaders, Aldam Tilao alias Abu Sabaya, was reported killed by the military in an offshore clash with crack troops in June 2002. – Roel Pareño