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U.S. to Aid Philippines in War on Group Linked to Al-Qaeda
MANILA, Oct 12 (News Agencies) - The Philippines could become a second front in the U.S.-led campaign against international terrorism, with U.S. advisors coming to train local troops fighting the Abu Sayyaf group, linked to the al-Qaeda organization, officials said Friday.
Filipino officials warmly welcomed U.S. assistance, but denied American troops would do the actual fighting against the Abu Sayyaf and downplayed the extent of activities of Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda network in this Southeast Asian archipelago nation.
President Gloria Arroyo on Friday reiterated her support for the U.S.-led international campaign against terrorism in the wake of the September 11th attacks on America.
She called on Muslim and Christian Filipinos "to defend our nation against terrorism and crush the bin Ladens of the world."
A team of about 16 U.S. military advisors is due to arrive here in the coming weeks to review the capabilities of local anti-terror forces and inspect possible staging areas such as airfields, Defense Secretary Angelo Reyes said.
The team would visit the southern island of Basilan, where the Abu Sayyaf is holding two Americans and 12 Filipinos hostage, for a first-hand look at the massive military operation intended to crush the insurgent group, Reyes said.
Highlighting the Abu Sayyaf's threat was a U.S. embassy announcement Friday that the skeletal remains of an Abu Sayyaf victim recovered recently had been identified by U.S. forensics experts as belonging to Californian Guillermo Sobero.
This confirmed the group's claim in June that they had beheaded Sobero.
Local troops have ratcheted up the manhunt for the Abu Sayyaf, a local group identified as having links with bin Laden, a Saudi-born dissident hiding in Afghanistan and blamed by Washington for the September 11th terror attacks in the U.S.
National Security Adviser Roilo Golez expressed hope the Philippines would receive more training, night-vision equipment and special weaponry from the United States, a close ally.
However, the officials also denied that bin Laden's al-Qaeda network had an extensive presence in this country outside of the Abu Sayyaf, which is isolated in small islands in the south.
U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage had earlier said the United States was deeply concerned about the presence of "Islamic extremists" with links to bin Laden being active in Indonesia and the Philippines.
He said in Washington that if the United States could help the Philippines in fighting the Abu Sayyaf, "particularly in training, we shall."
Reyes and Arroyo's spokesman Rigoberto Tiglao said there was no verified reports that bin Laden still operated in the Philippines.
"There haven't been any reports of active al-Qaeda network [activity] here" since Philippine police and the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in 1995 foiled a plot to hijack U.S. airlines and crash them into U.S. buildings, Tiglao said.
Local police arrested one suspect, Abdul Hakim Murad, and handed him over to the United States, where he was sentenced to life in prison for the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center in New York.
The foreigners had since retreated from the Philippines, Reyes said.
He said they would never rule out any terrorist presence in the Philippines but warned against "overreactions".
"They were here before. They could come back, but there is no need to be overly excited about this," he added.
"The major threat is the local Abu Sayyaf. I think the international terrorists will have more lucrative targets elsewhere," Reyes said.
Tiglao described the Abu Sayyaf as "businessmen-terrorists" who were driven by the ransom money acquired from their kidnappings rather than any political agenda.
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