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By Al Jacinto, Correspondent
SULU: More US troops are expected
to arrive soon in the Philippines to support hundreds already
deployed in the southern part of the country aiding Filipino
soldiers in battling terrorism.
At least 30 soldiers, part of the
Guam Army National Guards’ First Battalion under the 294th
Infantry Regiment, are heading to support “Operation Enduring
Freedom-Philippines,” the Guam-based Mariana’s Variety newspaper
reported Wednesday.
It said the soldiers will serve
as security, at least for six months, for a unit of the Special
Operations Command-Pacific that is conducting joint
civilian-military operations and training with the Philippine
military in Mindanao.
US soldiers deployed in the South
are under Joint Special Task Force-Philippines that is based in
Zamboanga City, but whose “area of operations,” according to a
US military publication, spans 8,000 square miles, covering the
entire island of Mindanao and its surrounding islands and seas.
With various military facilities
now being constructed for their use, members of the unit refer to
their bases in Mindanao as “Forward Operating Base-11” and
“Advanced Operating Base-921.”
Though US and Philippine
government officials have consistently claimed that the unit is not
involved in actual combat, US troops themselves describe their
mission as “unconventional warfare” and “counterinsurgency”
operations in the country. US troops join Filipino soldiers on
patrol, provide them with intelligence, and assist in various
aspects of their operations.
American soldiers are also active
in many development and humanitarian activities in southern
Philippines, especially in Sulu province where they build roads and
schools and join medical missions with local troops and the
provincial government mostly in poor areas.
The humanitarian missions is part
of Balikatan (“shoulder-to-shoulder”), an annual Philippine and
US bilateral military humanitarian assistance and training activity.
Sulu Gov. Sakur Tan said the
humanitarian missions help many poor families in the province.
Earlier this year, around 600 US
troops worked with civilian authorities and the Armed Forces of the
Philippines in various humanitarian projects that included free
medical, dental, and veterinary care in Sulu and also in the central
and western parts of Mindanao.
US and Philippine soldiers, many
of them construction engineers, built schools and other community
infrastructure in those areas.
In 2006, the United States Navy
hospital ship Mercy treated more than 60,000 mostly poor Filipino
patients in separate medical missions in Sulu, Basilan and Tawi-Tawi
islands, including Zamboanga City, as part of Project Bayanihan
(“self-help”).
In Sulu also on Wednesday,
government forces clashed with militants there, leaving one soldier
wounded and a still undetermined number of gunmen dead and wounded,
officials said.
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