Despite terror threat, GIs going to Sulu

US troops will still be deployed in Mindanao despite possible new terrorist attacks by Islamic extremists linked to al-Qaeda, the government said yesterday.

Defense Secretary Angelo Reyes said the planned joint Philippine-US military exercises in the south, dubbed "Balikatan" (Shoulder-to-shoulder) will proceed after a State Department report of possible new terror attacks.

"The Balikatan will go through and we are ready for those kinds of threats," Reyes said.

US forces are to assist the Philippine military in operations targeting the Abu Sayyaf Islamist group, which has been linked to Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaeda network.

Malacañang reiterated that the Americans would not be given a combat role, which is prohibited under the Constitution, and they can only fire back in self-defense.

Sylvestre Afable, chief of the Presidential Management Staff, said the maneuvers would be governed under the same guidelines or "terms of reference" used in last year’s war games held in Basilan, an Abu Sayyaf stronghold.

However, the guidelines would also have provisions that adhere to "standards of the United Nations resolution on the intensified fight against terrorism," Afable said, without elaborating. Manila staunchly supports the US-led war on terrorism.

Afable said the guidelines have already approved "in principle" by the Arroyo administration and would be made public after it has been approved by both governments.

Reyes described the Abu Sayyaf threat as "old hat," and assured the public that the military was taking steps to quash the group. Spokesmen for the US Embassy in Manila could not be contacted for comment.

The US State Department warned on Wednesday that threats to US interests were present in Southeast Asia, particularly in the Philippines and Malaysia, and identified the Abu Sayyaf as a possible source of attacks.

"The (group) remains a security threat to areas in (the Malaysian state of) Sabah, which is close to the southern Philippines," the State Department said.

The warning was issued just after the deadly suicide bomb attacks in Riyadh that have been widely blamed on al-Qaeda, the terror network of Osama bin Laden.

US broadcaster Cable News Network reported on its website said that "in the Philippines, the threat deals with a Muslim guerrilla insurgency, said officials who believe that Saudi Arabia could again be a potential target."

Meanwhile, the Associated Press reported the US State Department noted Wednesday "it is still concerned about the possibility of a terrorist attack in Southeast Asia similar to last year’s bombings on the Indonesian resort island of Bali."

Wednesday’s warning also said that the threat of attacks similar to the Oct. 12, 2002, bombing in Bali existed throughout Southeast Asia, pointing to the Abu Sayyaf in the Philippines as another source of danger.

The Abu Sayyaf was blamed for a bomb attack in 2002 that killed a US soldier and two Filipinos in the south and have been responsible for several kidnappings of foreigners and Christians in the region.

Both the Philippine and US governments have linked the Abu Sayyaf to the al-Qaeda terrorist network and blamed the Islamic kidnap gang for the murder of two American hostages seized in 2001.

The bandits are still holding two Filipino women hostage, who have been the subject of an ongoing military rescue operation.

Several hundred US Special Forces troops advised Filipino troops going after the Abu Sayyaf on the southern Philippine island of Basilan last year, resulting in the crippling of Abu Sayyaf forces there and aiding in the capture and death of some members and leaders.

American troops are scheduled to hold similar joint operations in the southern islands of Sulu — another Abu Sayyaf stronghold — later this year. Many of the fighters in Basilan, estimated at about 300, have fled to Sulu.

The planned exercise stirred controversy after unidentified Pentagon officials said in February that US troops would engage in combat against the Abu Sayyaf. Philippine officials quickly issued denials.

Under the Philippine Constitution, foreign troops cannot engage in combat in this country and American troops in previous exercises could only fire in self-defense.

Officials earlier said that aside from Sulu, US troops would also deploy in other areas of the south, including the Zamboanga peninsula on the main southern Philippine island of Mindanao.

Muslim officials from Sulu have expressed reservations over the joint exercises, warning that it could trigger a bigger conflict in the already strife-torn area.

They said it brought back memories of bitter clashes between Muslim fighters and US colonial troops in Sulu in the early-1900s. — AFP, Mayen Jaymalin