2 US soldiers killed in blast in Southern Philippines

The remains of a destroyed US military vehicle after a roadside bombing Tuesday, September 29, 2009 in the southern Philippine island of Sulu. Two US Special Forces soldiers and a Filipino marine were killed in the attack believed carried out by militants. (Mindanao Examiner Photo / Nickee Butlangan).

ZAMBOANGA CITY, Philippines (Mindanao Examiner / September 29, 2009) – Two US soldiers and a Filipino marine were killed in a roadside bombing Tuesday in the southern Philippines, officials said.

Philippine military spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Romeo Brawner Jr said the blast killed two American soldiers and a Filipino marine in Sulu province. No group has claimed responsibility for the bombing.

“We still don’t know who was behind the attack, but two US troops and a Filipino soldier were killed in the roadside bombing,” he told the Mindanao Examiner.

Police said three more Filipino soldiers were wounded in the attack that targeted the US and Philippine military convoy. Earlier reports said two US American soldiers were also wounded in the blast, but Brawner claimed that only two had died from the attack.

The attack occurred at around 8.30 a.m. in the village of Kagay in Indanan town where local troops are battling Abu Sayyaf and Jemaah Islamiya militants since last week.

Security officials did not identify the slain US soldiers, but the wounded Filipino marines are all in critical condition. Other sources in Sulu named the slain Americans as SSG Jack Martin and SFC Christopher Shaw.

Brawner said the US and Filipino troops were on their way to inspect a school project when their vehicles rolled over a landmine.

US Special Forces are deployed in Sulu since 2006 and aiding the Philippine military in defeating the Abu Sayyaf. Although security officials deny US forces were directly involved in combat operations, there were numerous reports from civilians that American soldiers actually participated in the operations aimed at capturing or killing militant leaders in Sulu and other areas in the restive southern region of Mindanao.

A US soldier was also killed and another wounded in a bomb attack at a roadside cafe near an army in Zamboanga City in October 2002.

Major General Benjamin Dolorfino, chief of the military’s Western Mindanao Command based in Zamboanga city, said the US and Filipino troops were in a convoy heading to a school project when the bomb went off.

“The US troops are not involved in the operation against the Abu Sayyaf. They were there because there is a school project in the village,” Dolorfino said in a separate interview.

The wounded troops were rushed to a military hospital in Jolo town, where another bomb exploded at a police post.

There were no reports of casualties in the explosion which occurred at around 10.30 a.m. in the village of Kasanyangan.

Police said an improvised explosive was used in the attack in the village of Kasanyangan, but there were no reports of casualties. “This is the handiwork of the Abu Sayyaf. We have tightened security in the villages to prevent future attacks,” said Chief Inspector Usman Pingay, commander of police forces in the capital town of Jolo.

He said the explosion targeted the command post of the Regional Mobile Group. The attack occurred three days after policemen killed an Abu Sayyaf militant, Karim Juldani, and captured another Albashir Adjili, in a firefight in Jolo town.

The two, Pingay said, were trying to sneak into Jolo when policemen stopped them near a checkpoint. He said police seized weapons from the two men.
Pingay ordered additional checkpoints around the town and appealed to citizens to stay vigilant and report to the police or military suspicious persons in their area.

“We must defeat terrorism. Citizens should stay vigilant,” he said.

The attack occurred just as troops continue their operation against the Abu Sayyaf and Jemaah Islamiya militants tagged as behind the series of bomb attacks and kidnappings for ransom in Sulu, one of five provinces under the troubled Muslim autonomous region.

Fighting in Sulu between troops and militants had killed 42 people, including eight marines who were ambushed by the Abu Sayyaf in Indanan town last week. Nine soldiers were also wounded in the attack.

The Moro National Liberation Front, which signed a peace deal with Manila in September 1996, accused the military of attacking its forces in Sulu’s Indanan town. It said troops shelled one of its camps, killing two of its members and wounding 8 more.

The military’s Western Mindanao Command denied the accusations and said the offensive targeted the militant groups – the Abu Sayyaf and the Jemaah Islamiya – adding, two of its feared terror leaders Mauiya and Quayem are being protected by the Abu Sayyaf.

Madarang Sali, deputy supreme commander of the Bangsamoro National Liberation Front, said military offensive against the MNLF still continues in Sulu. “Up to this time, the military offensive is going on,” he said on Tuesday.

He said government operations were directed as MNLF leader Khaid Ajibun who had escaped a military raid last week. (Mindanao Examiner)

10 wounded in Maoist rebel attacks in the southern Philippines

A file photo of the KIA KM450 truck, also known as M715 truck.

DAVAO CITY, Philippines (Mindanao Examiner / Jan. 30, 2009) – Communist rebels ambushed a military convoy and raided a police station in separate attacks and wounding at least 10 people in the southern Philippines.

New People’s Army rebels detonated a roadside bomb while the military convoy was passing on a village in Paquibato District in the outskirts of Davao City on Thursday.

“Seven infantry soldiers were wounded in the landmine attack,” an army spokesman Lt. Col. Romeo Brawner told the Mindanao Examiner.

He said the soldiers also exchanged automatic gunfire with at least 5 rebels, but there were no reports of NPA casualties.

The soldiers were traveling on a convoy of eight KM450 trucks when the rebels detonated a landmine, he said. “One truck was destroyed in the blast,” he said.

Another group of NPA rebels also raided a police station in South Cotabato’s Tampakan town later in the day. At least 3 policemen were reported wounded in the raid.

The attacks coincided with demands by NPA to free three rebels arrested by government soldiers on January 26 in Compostela Valley province. Rebel leaders said the trio Ruel Cabales, 41; Nelson Carvajosa, 35; and Catherine Cacdac, 31 was abducted by soldiers.

“The January 26 incident is a blatant abduction. The 10th Infantry Division which prides itself on torturing captured NPA combatants and finishing off NPA hors de combat employs treachery and makes a mockery of the international humanitarian law and the GRP-NDFP Comprehensive Agreement on the Respect for Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law.”

“We demand that the 10th Infantry Division surface Ka Rael, Ka Janggo and Ka Kulay, and to treat their captives humanely according to universally acceptable norms and to desist from subjecting the said NPA cadres to barbaric and inhuman torture,” said Rigoberto Sanchez, a rebel spokesman.

Last year, the outlawed Communist Party of the Philippines have ordered the NPA to intensify attacks as part of its new offensive, whose main purpose it said, is to seize weapons and increase the number of rebel forces in the country.

he CPP broke off peace talks with Manila in 2004 after the United States listed the communist groups as foreign terrorist organizations and froze their assets abroad on government's prodding. (Mindanao Examiner)

Philippine Army orders probe into media complaints against officer in Mindanao

MANILA, Philippines (Mindanao Examiner / Nov. 6, 2008) – The Philippine Army has ordered an investigation into a controversial officer accused of berating a journalist covering a fire that razed an ammo dump inside a military base in Mindanao.

Lt. Col. John Oswald Bucu, camp commander of the Army’s 6th Infantry Division in Maguindanao province, berated Loreto Rosario, of the Catholic radio station dxMS in Cotabato City, while reporting about an ammo dump which exploded October 31.

The officer also seized Rosario’s cellular phones and brought him at the camp’s public information office where Bucu continued to lambaste the journalist in front of soldiers.

Lt. Col. Julieto Ando, the army division spokesman, who knew Rosario, has already apologized to the journalist, but Bucu remains defiant despite mounting calls from media groups for the military to discipline the officer.

Other journalists covering the fire were also prevented from getting near the ammo dump even after the blaze was over. The National Union of Journalists of the Philippines has already demanded the military to discipline Bucu. His superiors have ignored these calls.

Bucu accused Rosario of intruding inside the camp and said that if not for him, soldiers could have shot the journalist, who has been covering the military the past years, reports said.

Journalists in Cotabato City have already boycotted coverage of the army division headquarters and demanded that relief of Bucu.

”The NUJP is demanding that the AFP impose strong sanctions against Bucu for his clear assault on press freedom,” the media organization said in a statement.

Maj. Gen. Raymundo Ferrer, 6th Infantry Division commander, has not responded to the NUJP demand, but journalists vowed to bring this to the attention of Defense Secy. Gilberto Teodoro and Philippine Army Chief Gen. Victor Ibrado.

Ibrado has already ordered an investigation into the NUJP complaints against Bucu, according to Lt. Col. Romeo Brawner, the Philippine Army spokesman.

“General Victor Ibrado has already ordered General (Raymundo) Ferrer to conduct an investigation on the matter,” Brawner told the Mindanao Examiner. Brawner said the embattled army officer insisted he was just protecting Rosario who was trying to get near the burning ammo dump.

Both Ferrer and Bucu are currently in Manila because of the ongoing investigations into the fire that destroyed the ammo dump.

The NUJP said Rosario’s case was not the first time that Bucu has targeted journalists. Two years ago, at a gathering of reporters at the headquarters of the Army’s 602nd Infantry Brigade in North Cotabato, Bucu allegedly branded NUJP Kidapawan chapter president Malu Manar a member of the communist rebel group New People’s Army.

Manar is also the program director of the Catholic radio station dxND in North Cotabato.

“We understand Ando has apologized for the incident, which speaks well of Ando but highlights the utter arrogance of Bucu. The only conclusion we can draw is that Bucu thinks he can get away with what he did, just as many of the brains behind the scores of unsolved media murders do. Even more disturbing, however, he is clear proof of the culture of impunity that has thrived in this country because of official inaction, even apathy, towards continued attacks on media.”

“Indeed, we would not be surprised if Bucu had taken his cue to harass Rosario or, earlier, to publicly slander Manar, from this government’s actual attempts to muzzle the independent Philippine press, as we saw in the short-lived state of emergency of February 2006 and the more recent arrest of journalists covering the Manila Peninsula incident last year. The AFP should impose on Bucu the sanctions he so richly deserves for his clear assault on press freedom. Failure to do so will only reinforce the perception that there is, at best, tacit official approval of attempts to silence the media,” an Asian Press report, quoting the NUJP, said Thursday. (Mindanao Examiner)