Philippine troops kill five Muslim extremists in south, women seen with rebels

Saturday, March 23rd 2002, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

(ZAMBOANGA, Philippines) - Philippine troops killed five Muslim rebels Saturday and saw an unidentified woman with the fleeing guerrillas, who are holding an American couple hostage on a southern island, military officials said.

The woman could be one of two female hostages held by the Abu Sayyaf guerrillas _ American missionary Gracia Burnham and Filipino nurse Ediborah Yap _ or she could be a supporter or wife of a rebel, said Maj. Noel Detoyato, a regional military spokesman.

Burnham and her husband Martin, also held by the rebels, were abducted last May from a southwestern island resort, where the Wichita, Kan. couple were celebrating their wedding anniversary. The Abu Sayyaf are believed to have ties to Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida terrorist network.

In Saturday's fighting, a rebel commander known only as Bakal was injured in the village of Landungan in Basilan province's Lantawan town, where 12 U.S. Special Forces are deployed for a counterterrorism drill, the officials said.

Following a recent clash in Lantawan, army troops recovered a rice sack filled with items like woman's underwear, body lotion, U.S. chocolate wrappers and a comb with hair strands.

The Americans troops, armed for self-defense but prohibited from fighting, have ventured into combat zones in Lantawan to help treat and evacuate wounded Filipino soldiers in three recent clashes.

There were no military casualties in the latest fighting, officials said. Soldiers were pursuing the undetermined number of rebels they chanced upon in a coconut grove, Detoyato said.

The military estimates a little more than 60 Abu Sayyaf rebels are left from a peak guerrilla force of more than 1,200 armed men in Basilan before government troops launched a large-scale offensive against them last June.

The United States has been providing training and weapons to the poorly equipped Filipino troops fighting the Abu Sayyaf.

About 660 U.S. soldiers are involved in a counterterrorism exercise in Basilan and nearby Zamboanga city, including 160 U.S. Special Forces deployed in teams of 12 Americans each to several army battalions. The Special Forces could later be allowed to join smaller Philippine army companies in actual Basilan combat areas as battle trainers.

U.S. military officials say American troops were training Filipinos to fly helicopters at night for combat evacuation, intelligence and combat and first-aid techniques. U.S. soldiers were learning from Philippine soldiers jungle survival techniques and small-unit raids on rebel lairs, local military officials said.

More than a dozen foreign peace activists opposed to U.S. military involvement against the Abu Sayyaf traveled to Basilan Saturday to assess the war's impact on villagers there. The local police are securing the visitors until they leave the island on Tuesday, organizers of the peace mission said.