MILF shoots down second spy plane in Mindanao

The Moro Islamic Liberation Front, the Philippines' largest Muslim rebel group fighting for independence, announced Saturday, June 20, 2009 that its fighters shot down a portable spy plane during a fierce firefight with army soldiers in the southern Philippine province of Maguindanao. It said the unmanned aerial vehicle resembled a mini-helicopter equipped with sensors and a camera. (Courtesy: Luwaran.com).

MAGUINDANAO, Philippines (Mindanao Examiner / June 20, 2009) – Moro Islamic Liberation Front rebels have shot down a portable spy plane during a fierce firefight with army soldiers in the southern Philippines.

The MILF said the unmanned aerial vehicle, which resembled a mini-chopper was shot down in the town of Guindulungan in Maguindanao province, had sensors and a camera.

“The downed spy vehicle - a mini-helicopter - was equipped with sensors and cameras. At the time of downing, the air vehicle was hovering low while the fighting was in progress, obviously sending back tactical data to the command headquarters of the 6th Infantry Division where a sophisticated communication or tracking facilities are in place,” the MILF said in a statement.

The MILF said the propellers of the plane had Chinese markings while its had markings that suggested it was made in Australia, a key ally of the Philippines in fighting local terrorism. Australia, which previously linked the MILF to the Indonesian terror group Jemaah Islamiya, is the Philippines' second largest defense cooperation partner behind the United States.

The MILF said an unnamed Filipino army colonel was trying to buy back the spy plane for P400,000, but the offer was rejected by rebels, who destroyed the unmanned aerial vehicle.

It said a sniper shot down the spy plane June 9 on orders from an MILF leader Wahid Tundok.

“Commander Wahid Tundok ordered one his sharpshooters to zero in on the pestering air vehicle. And with one shot, it crashed down in a hillside. It was however retrieved later by his men with body and parts largely intact,” the MILF said.

Tundok was among those killed in a firefight late Thursday between rebels and troops in Guindulungan town, the army said.

It was unknown if the spy plane was owned by the 6th Infantry Division, but an army spokesman Colonel Jonathan Ponce said they have no spy planes. “We have no spy planes or UAV. We don’t need spy planes to track down the rebels because civilians, who are fed up with the MILF atrocities, are providing us intelligence,” he told the Mindanao Examiner.

It was the second time that rebel forces shot down a spy plane. MILF forces also shot down and captured a US military spy drone flying inside their territory in Maguindanao’s Talayan town on October 31 last year. The drone was one of many spy planes used by US forces – assisting Filipino military - in surveillance operations in Mindanao.

Several US military drones also crashed in the southern Philippines since 2002. The US military has a fleet of various unmanned spy planes, from a palm-size remote-controlled aircraft, to bigger and sophisticated high-altitude; long-range remotely piloted vehicles designed for long-endurance photographic reconnaissance and electronic surveillance missions, and as attack air crafts.

The US military had also used a Philippine Air Force base in Mactan Island in Cebu province in central Philippines as station of its fleet of Orion spy planes. (Mindanao Examiner)