U.S. Special Forces have begun arriving in the Philippines to assist Philippine troops in their fight against Muslim guerrillas linked to Osama bin Laden, a significant expansion of the U.S. war on terrorism outside Afghanistan.
Although the deployment is a training exercise, the U.S. troops will accompany front-line Filipino forces on patrols in guerrilla-threatened areas in the southern Philippines. Approximately 650 U.S. soldiers, including 160 Special Forces, will take part in the exercise, defense officials said yesterday.
“It is not a modest number, it”s several hundred plus,” Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld said in an interview with radio journalists. “But it is a group of people that are going to be with the Philippine forces for the purpose of training.”
Even as Pentagon officials say the focus of the war will remain on Afghanistan, the dispatch of several hundred U.S. troops to the Philippines underscores the Bush administration”s intention to wage its fight against terrorism on a global scale.
Having put aside such targets as Iraq, at least for now, the administration is working with friendly governments such as the Philippines, Malaysia and Singapore that are seeking help in rooting out terrorist groups. It”s also looking to such countries as Indonesia, Yemen and Somalia, where al-Qaida cells are believed to be located.
The U.S. forces moving to the Philippines will help the Philippine army in the fight against Abu Sayyaf, a terrorist group that Washington says is linked to bin Laden, whose al-Qaida network is blamed for the Sept. 11 attacks against the United States.
“United States military trainers will be helping the Philippine government and Philippine armed forces to deal with the terrorist threat they have that affects their interests, as well as ours,” Secretary of State Colin Powell said in an interview yesterday with ABC News.
A shipment of weapons from the United States, including automatic rifles and grenade launchers, arrived in the Philippines in recent days, part of a package of American military assistance. “More of this stuff will be going in,” a Pentagon official said.