US, RP Recon Troops Attacked In Jolo Island

A Philippine Air Force UH1H flies over Jolo island. Two similar aircrafts carrying RP and US recon troops came under hostile fire Tuesday while on a mission on Jolo island, a stronghold of al-Qaeda-linked Abu Sayyaf group, about 950 south of Manila. (Zamboanga Journal)

ZAMBOANGA CITY (Zamboanga Journal / 08 Mar) US and Philippine soldiers on an aerial reconnaissance mission came under hostile fire on the island of Jolo, about 950 km south of Manila, a known stronghold of the al-Qaeda-linked Abu Sayyaf group, officials said.

Officials said one of the two Philippine military UH1H choppers was hit, but no serious damage to the aircraft or passenger casualties had been reported.

The two choppers, carrying undetermined number of US and Filipino troops, were conducting aerial reconnaissance flight late Tuesday afternoon over, when the aircrafts came under fire over Buanza village on Jolo.

Officials said one chopper had bullet holes on its main rotor blade.

No groups claimed responsibility for the attack, but the area is a known stronghold of the Abu Sayyaf group, blamed for the series of terrorism and kidnappings for ransom in the southern Philippines.

Aside from the Abu Sayyaf, renegade members of the former rebel group Moro National Liberation Front are also active on the island and are known to attack Filipino security forces.

It was the first time that US troops were attacked on Jolo, where both Filipino and American forces just finished a joint antiterrorism drill dubbed as Balikatan 2006, which means shoulder-to-shoulder.

It was not immediately known if the US soldiers were the target in the attack, but it sent a strong signal to Washington that the war on terror in the Philippines is far from over.

And the military efforts to defeat terrorism were severely affected by the political situation in Manila, where security forces had been kept busy in fighting threats by right-wing soldiers and communist insurgents and leftist and militant groups to unseat President Gloria Arroyo.

Political opposition and coup plotters accused Arroyo of rigging last year's polls and charged her of plunder, which she survived, but calls for her to resign is mounting. Arroyo said she won the elections fair and square against her closest rival Fernando Poe, and that she is the best person to run the country.

Last month, Arroyo declared a state of emergency, but lifted this a week later after crushing a supposed coup plot by rebel soldiers.