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Friday, August 13, 2004
US-trained soldiers to be deployed to hunt JI in RP (12:00 pm)
ZAMBOANGA -- Philippine soldiers being trained by US special forces will be deployed to hunt down Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) militants in the south, the armed forces chief said in remarks published Friday.
General Narciso Abaya said a company of Filipino soldiers, currently completing training with US forces in the city of Zamboanga, will soon be sent to the central part of Mindanao island where JI members are believed to be hiding.
Abaya said the US-trained troops would be instrumental in pursuing the JI in Mindanao just as US-trained troops played a key role in hunting down members of the Abu Sayyaf, an Al-Qaeda-linked Muslim group based on the island of Basilan.
"Just like the (last US-Philippine collaboration) where we successfully flushed out the Abu Sayyaf, we will also use this counter-terrorism to flush out the ranks of the Jemaah Islamiyah," said Abaya at a ceremony late Thursday.
He watched about 100 Philippine troops, backed by US instructors, as they staged a mock assault on a fortified position, simulating an attack on rebel positions.
The US troops have been training a company of about 120 Filipino soldiers for the past month and will then train another company until more than 1,000 troops have gone through the program.
All these soldiers will then be re-deployed back to central Mindanao where about 30 JI members, mostly Indonesians, are believed to be hiding in camps of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), a local Muslim separatist group.
The MILF has signed a ceasefire with the Philippine government to negotiate for peace but defense officials say hardline MILF commanders have allowed JI militants to train in their camps.
Abaya did not say how the US-trained troops could be used against JI militants without violating the ceasefire.
The United States in recent years has stepped up training of Philippine troops as part of its worldwide campaign against terrorism.
The JI is believed to be the Southeast Asian chapter of Al-Qaeda and has been blamed for a string of violent attacks in the region, including the 2002 Bali bombings that killed 202 people. AFP
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