Fresh batch of US soldiers joins Sayyaf hunt

ZAMBOANGA CITY — Over 100 US soldiers arrived Tuesday night here to train Filipino troops in battling the al-Qaeda-linked Abu Sayyaf and Jemaah Islamiyah terrorists in the southern Philippines, US and Philippine military officials said yesterday.

Lt. Gen. Eugenio Cedo, chief of the military’s Western Mindanao Command (Wesmincom), said the American soldiers will replace those who have completed their tour of duty here and in Sulu, where hundreds of government troops are hunting down Abu Sayyaf top leader Khadaffy Janjalani and two Jemaah Islamiyah cohorts.

Most of the US soldiers are with the US Army’s Special Forces.

US Embassy spokesman Matthew Lussenhop said the fresh batch of US troops is part of Washington’s military assistance to the Philippines and in line with the US-led global war on terrorism.

US military spokesman Maj. John Redfield said the US troops will provide training as well as "perform support functions for those involved with advising and assisting their Filipino counterparts" especially in the ongoing campaign against the Abu Sayyaf and Jemaah Islamiyah.

The US soldiers’ arrival encountered a minor diplomatic hitch when immigration authorities briefly held them because they didn’t bring their passports. They arrived on board a chartered United Airlines flight.

"Supposedly they are required passports just like anybody else like our soldiers rendering peacekeeping missions abroad and they are required to have with them their passports," Cedo said. "This might have been overlooked. But aside from (that), there are no hitches."

Earlier last August, troops in Sulu launched an offensive to flush Janjalani and his two Jemaah Islamiyah allies out of the jungle.

Among the Jemaah Islamiyah members believed to be hiding there are Dulmatin (who goes by one name) and Umar Patek, both wanted for their alleged role in the 2002 Bali bombings in Indonesia that killed 202 people, mostly foreign tourists.

The Abu Sayyaf group, on a US terrorist list, is notorious for ransom kidnappings, beheadings and bombings, including a February 2004 attack that gutted a ferry in Manila Bay and killed 116 people in one of Southeast Asia’s worst terrorist attacks.

US troops, who maintain a presence in Sulu as part of counterterrorism assistance, are not involved in the fighting but the United States is believed to be supplying Philippine forces with intelligence on the Abu Sayyaf. The Philippine Constitution bars foreign troops from fighting on local soil.

The military is also relying on information from local villagers in the search for Janjalani and his Jemaah Islamiyah allies, who are believed to be training the Abu Sayyaf on how to make bombs.

Yesterday, Cedo handed over a total of P450,000 in reward money to two tipsters whose information led to the arrest of two Abu Sayyaf suspects and the killing of a third.