Philippines War: US Troops Targeted in Fatal Attacks
by Ma Nguyen Tong
30-10-2002
A powerful bomb exploded outside a
restaurant frequented by American troops fighting alongside the Philippines
armed forces, killing an American Green Beret commando and two Filipinos
and wounding at least 25 other people, including another Green Beret commando.
Another explosion rocked the city the following evening, this time near a
church. The second blast left a small crater in the pavement. The 260-member
US Special Forces unit in the area was put on special high alert. Another
hour-long firefight elsewhere left two more dead. The Philippines armed forces
vowed to cut off the hand of Abu Sayyaf. Government agents arrested a Jordanian
businessman-educator who was linked to the bombing. The US sent 800 more
troops as military advisors in the 30-year civil war. Subsequently, fierce
clashes between marines and Abu Sayyaf separatists on the southern island
of Jolo left eleven servicemen dead and 25 others wounded, military officials
said. Firefights continued during the month.
The blast, which a military intelligence report to President Arroyo claimed
was carried out by a four-man "urban combat unit" of the southern separatist
forces, ripped off the roof of a small wooden house and damaged six shops.
Television footage showed pools of blood and unconscious victims--some with
their shirts bloodied--being loaded into ambulances. Most of the wounded
were Filipino soldiers and civilians.
It was not clearly understood to where the bomb was supposed to be delivered.
The bomb was on a motorcycle and the driver had stopped and was checking
something on the motorcycle when the bomb exploded, killing him instantly.
The blast site was near a military arm depot and the area largely populated
by members of the military. It was not clear whether this was a suicide bombing,
a first for the Philippines, or whether the bomb had accidentally gone of
prematurely.
US troops virtually took over security matters at Camp Enrile, the Philippine
military headquarters located in Zamboango, and at a military hospital at
the Southern Command headquarters.
In another development, police and military bomb disposal experts on October
2 safely detonated another powerful bomb planted under a town plaza in Midsayap,
North Cotabato. The incident came two days after two grenade blasts rocked
nearby Pikit and Kabacan towns in the same province.
AFP vows to cut off hand of Sayyaf
Philippines armed forces chief Defensor vowed to "cut off the hand" of the
Abu Sayaff separatist group, blaming it for the bombing attack in Zamboanga.
Defensor vowed to go after the Abu Sayyaf, which both US and Philippines
forces had victorious claimed had been virtually wiped out three months before
during an American-backed military offensive involving thousands of crack
troop. Obviously they were wrong.
The Abu Sayyaf had warned the week before it would mount attacks on civilian,
military and US targets in the Philippines to retaliate for the ongoing
government offensive in the 30-year civil war against Muslim separatists.
Abu Sayyaf separatists seized 102 hostages, including three Americans, in
a year-long kidnapping spree. In a bloody US and Philippine army rescue attempt,
American missionary Martin Burnham and Filipina naurse Edibora Yap were killed,
while Burnham's wife, Gracia, was wounded by the military's gunfire but survived.
Four Abu Sayyaf held for blast
Military intelligence agents held on October 7 four suspected members of
the Abu Sayyaf for questioning on the bombing in Zamboanga. Western Mindano
police director Chief Superintendent Simeon Dizon confirmed the four had
been picked up in Barangay Talon-Talong, but refused to name them. After
some questioning the four were released by the military upon the intervention
of a former governor of Tawi-Tawi the following day. former governor Al Tillah
had the four civilians turned over to him after he visited them, claiming
they were his relatives and were innocent. In the Philippines the authorities
often arrest people quite blindly if they cannot catch the real culprits
in order to appease the public and their superiors. If these innocent people
begin to make a fuss about their mistaken arrest an excuse is found "to shoot
them in action" so they cannot talk--a form of extra-judicial execution for
making too much noise.
Jordanian arrested
Government agents on October 7 arrested a Jordanian businessman-educator
who was linked by the intelligence community to the Zamboanga bombing.. Agents
of the National Intelligence Coordinating Agency (NICA) and the Bureau of
Immigration said Mohammad Amin al-Ghaffari did not put up a fight when the
agents collared him at 22:30 hrs in a restaurant. in Greenhills, San Juan.
Intelligence sources said that had established al Ghaffari's links with
suspicious foreigners, mostly Indonesians, who were believed to be members
of an Indonesian separatist group known as Jemaah Islamiyah. The sources
said they were still gathering evidence that would link him to the bombing.
Al Ghaffari was married to a Filipina, and had several business ventures
in Metro Manila and in Mindanao, including madrasahs, or Islamic schools.
However, Immigration Commissioner Andrea Domingo clarified that al Ghaffari's
arrest had nothing to do with the bombing or international terrorists and
said the local authorities were using al Ghaffari's case to win congratulations
from American authorities, "much like a dog wags its tail to be petted".
He stressed this was dangerous behaviour because innocent people would be
turned over to the United States, which for domestic political reasons to
obfuscate the real reasons behind the September 11 attacks, would place the
arrested individual incommunicado, virtually imprisoning forever innocent
people. He said the Philippine government knew of numerous cases of innocent
people held by the American simply "because they were not completely sure
and it was better to be safe than not". He said the Jordanian was being detained
at an undisclosed locations for immigration law violations related to having
a business without appropriate visas. He had been given a temporary resident's
visa in 1995 after he married the Filipina. The visa had expired on June
27, hence that is why he had been arrested. The Jordanian was later found
to have had nothing to do with the bombing, however he was deported for having
violated visa conditions.
MILF separatists ambush soldier; 2 dead
Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) separatists ambushed a platoon of patrolling
soldiers in Barira, Maguindanao on October 1, triggering an hour-long firefight
that left two MILF fighters dead and three others wounded. Barira is not
far away from the MILF's former enclave, Camp Abubakar, now secured by a
brigade-sized army contigent.
Capt. Antonio Arriba, civil affairs chief of the army's 6th Infantry
Division, said the separatists, positioned at a strategic spot in Barangay
Dadung in Barira, opened fire first on patrolling combatants of the
64th Infantry Battalion. Arriba said the soldiers were dispatched
to the area follwing reports from villagers that MILF separatists were operating
in the area.
Although outnumbered, the soldiers, backed by militiamen and US troops, managed
to outmanoeuver their ambushes, killing two of them, both described as still
adolescents. Barangay officials confirmed that the fleeing separatists carried
three wounded companions, one of them said to be a preacher. Arriba said
soldiers found more than a dozen live B-40 rockets, assorted ammunition and
a jungle pack containing military uniforms at the scene of the ambush.
Soldiers and MILF separatists in Maguindao's Datu Piang and Shariff Aguak
towns, meanwhile, continued to face a standoff, ready to shoot at each other
at the slightest provocation. Arriba said that combatants of the 37th
and 7th Infantry Battalions succeeded in driving away
separatists who had occupied farming villages in the two towns during the
last week of September, but their snipers kept coming back, targeting soldiers
in detachments.
US troops arrive for "Talon Vision"
Despite the death of the Green Beret, some 800 more US troops arrived during
the second week of October to take part in operations in. The US embassy
said it lamented the death of the Green Beret, but that the "Talon Vision"
operation would nevertheless go ahead starting from October 11, as scheduled.
Marines killed in Abu Sayyaf clash
Fierce clashes between marines and Abu Sayyaf separatists on the southern
island of Jolo left eleven servicemen dead and 25 others wounded, military
officials said on October 12. Bombers and attack helicopters took turns blasting
suspected positions of an Abu Sayyaf faction believed to still be holding
hostage four female Jehovah's Witnesses, the officials added.
The women were snatched August 20 while selling Avon cosmetics in a remote
village on the troubled island. There was some confusion as to what they
actually were doing because although Jehovah's Witnesses are known to go
door-to-door trying to sell their particular brand of religion, they were
not known to go door-to-door selling Avon cosmetics. Perhaps they were doing
both at the same time as witnesses said they were the prettiest Jehovah's
Witnesses anyone had seen in a long time. Usually they are a dour lot. There
were no reports about the women's fate. Three Indonesian tugboat crewmen
are also being held by the Muslim extremist separatists. Other marines deployed
elsewhere on Jolo were sent to the area.
The separatists split into smaller groups and continued to engage the soldiers
in scattered gun battles in the jungle, military sources said. U.S. military
support helped Filipino troops decimate the Abu Sayyaf with a months-long
offensive over the summer on Basilan island but now was fighting an Abu Sayyaf
faction on another island, Sulu.
The marines suffered the casualties on the Abu Sayyaf in Patihul town, one
of their strongholds. The troops, backed by artillery, OV-10 attack aircraft
and MG520 helicopter gunships, were used in the attack. Jolo military chief
Col. Alexander Aleo said that although there was an ongoing operation he
did not say why the poorly organised attacked was launched. Despite the warm
work, the offensive had to fall work as the separatists seemed to gain the
upper hand.
Khadaffy Janjalani, the leader of the Abu Sayyaf, was also believed to be
in Patilkul. Janjalani had been claimed killed in a rather noisy American
claim earlier in the year, but obviously they were wrong. Intelligence sources
said about 400 Abu Sayyaf members and other Muslim separatists had massed
in Patikul and were successfully holding off the attacking troops and air
support, causing horrendous casualties.
"This kind of warfare is difficult. It is not like fighting a war in an open
desert such as in Iraq where there is nothing the break the line of light
or cause high-tech equipment to be confused," said Aleo. "The jungle is full
of animals and innocent villagers, making the high-tech detection equipment
sort of useless as even small rodents are attacked by our smart weapons."
Five killed in new Lanao firefights
Five separatists were killed in two firefights on October 19 as government
and American troops pursued separatist soldiers in the jungles of Lanao del
Sur, according to military officials in Zamboanga City.
"We have achieved our objectives; the enemy fled into the deep jungle of
Mt. Palau," Col. Ernesto Boac, army's 401st Brigade commander
said. Boac said the first encounter broke out about 09:30 hrs in Mt. Palau,
Pualas town. He said the firefight erupted for 37 minutes that left 3 separatists
dead before a running gunbattle ensued as the separatists fled from the embattled
site towards the deep forest.
Thirty minutes later, pursuing troops again engaged the fleeing separatists
some 2 km away from the first encounter site near Mt. Palau. Boac said two
more separatists were killed in the 30-minute encounter that forced the
separatists to retreat into the jungle. The troops recovered five high-powered
firearms in both encounters.