Philippine Army

Philippine forces bombarded Muslim rebels on a southern island Sunday in retaliation for an ambush of soldiers, killing an unspecified number of guerrillas allegedly linked to Osama bin Laden, the army said. Army spokesman Major Noel Detoyato said troops fired howitzers at Abu Sayyaf positions on Jolo island after a guerrilla ambush Friday in which six Filipino soldiers were killed. "There was an undetermined number killed among the Abu Sayyaf," Detoyato said.

Scores of people were reported dead Tuesday as Typhoon Bopha deluged the southern Philippines, toppling trees and triggering landslides as heavy rains and blasting winds pounded the islands. The Philippines national disaster agency confirmed at least four people had died from falling trees and drownings as of Tuesday night local time. Media reports put the death toll at more than 70, including at least 33 people who perished on the island of Mindanao as floodwaters abruptly burst onto the village of New Bataan in the Compostela Valley.

Sixty Philippine soldiers suspected of involvement in bank robberies have been removed from their assignments and sent on combat missions against communist rebels, the armed forces reported Wednesday. The soldiers, mostly privates, were members of a security force assigned to guard the Camp Aguinaldo general military headquarters in Manila.

In a hut on stilts with paper-thin walls of bamboo strips, an off-duty Philippine soldier was asleep alongside four members of his family when the crackle of assault rifle fire and shudder of grenade blasts awakened them early last month. Within minutes, Cpl. Ibnun Wahid, 35, was dead, along with seven other villagers, including two children, age 4 and 9, two teenagers and two women, one of them pregnant.

Philippine Defense Minister Juan Ponce Enrile said Friday that the military would not take part in cease-fire talks between the government and Communist insurgents so that free discussions could take place. "We are actually involved in the conflict, and it is better that we remove all kinds of emotions . . . so that the assessment would be done with the highest possible objectivity," he told a business club meeting. No date has been set for talks.

The Philippine military Friday arrested 14 soldiers linked to the murders of two Malaysian and three Filipino Muslim missionaries last month. Col. Raul Aquino said two military commanders detained since the June 29 ambush on the southern Philippine island of Mindanao had been freed after the military concluded an internal investigation. Witnesses said Malaysians Saki Benche Hashim and Abdullah Jamaluddin, members of a Muslim fundamentalist group called the Tablee Assn.

A powerful explosion in a karaoke bar near a Philippine army camp killed one person Saturday and wounded about 20 on Jolo island, where U.S. troops are staying for joint war exercises. Philippine Brig. Gen. Alexander Aleo, the top military officer on Jolo island, today identified the dead man as a driver who was working under contract for U.S. troops.

The Philippine army carried its biggest offensive against Muslim separatists in years to the perimeter of the rebels' last stronghold Wednesday, pounding the camp with aerial bombardments and mortars. Commanders told Philippine reporters that they could capture the sprawling, 25,000-acre Camp Abu Bakr on the southern island of Mindanao within days if they push forward with an all-out attack. "They're out to pulverize us," said rebel spokesman Eid Kabalu.

A top State Department official recommended Sunday that the United States provide more aid to help the government of Philippine President Corazon Aquino deal with a Communist insurgency and to head off further attempted military coups. Michael H. Armacost, under secretary of state for political affairs, said during an appearance on NBC's televised "Meet the Press" that funds are needed to strengthen the Philippine army to "go after the insurgency in a very comprehensive way."

A senior U.S. government official said today that the Philippine armed forces should be stopped from abusing the human rights of civilians. Paul Wolfowitz, U.S. assistant secretary of state for East Asia and the Pacific, was speaking to reporters after a three-day visit during which he met with President Ferdinand E. Marcos, other government leaders and opposition politicians. He said many things were involved in countering a growing communist insurgency in the country.

The Philippine army seized a well-developed Abu Sayyaf rebel base, a senior military official said today, in a bloody retaliatory offensive spurred by the beheading of soldiers last month. At least 35 soldiers and militants were killed in the raid on the remote southern island of Basilan. The base included underground bunkers and tunnels, a military spokesman said.

A militant leader linked to Al Qaeda and wanted in the beheading of a California tourist was killed in a jungle battle, the Philippine army announced Wednesday. The military first reported that it had wounded Jainal Antel Sali Jr., also known as Abu Solaiman, on Tuesday when special forces raided a hide-out of the Abu Sayyaf militant group on Jolo island, about 600 miles south of Manila.

Police officer Loreto Binondo is searching for a gold ring. He rushes to each body pulled from the mud and checks for the band he recently gave his wife, Ann, on their 20th anniversary. "When I find it, I find her and I can say goodbye," said a weary Binondo. "I'll keep doing this until the recovery operations stop. I have no home, no one to come home to."

A powerful explosion in a karaoke bar near a Philippine army camp killed one person Saturday and wounded about 20 on Jolo island, where U.S. troops are staying for joint war exercises. Philippine Brig. Gen. Alexander Aleo, the top military officer on Jolo island, today identified the dead man as a driver who was working under contract for U.S. troops.

The Philippine army intelligence chief resigned after a failed weekend mutiny by junior officers and soldiers demanding reforms in the military. President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo said she accepted Brig. Gen. Victor Corpus' resignation. About 300 soldiers and officers who took over a ritzy commercial complex in Manila's financial district for 19 hours had demanded that Corpus quit.

The Pentagon on Friday backed off a plan to send American combat troops to help wipe out the Abu Sayyaf rebels in the Philippines, following widespread criticism that the move would violate the Asian nation's constitution. Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and his Philippine counterpart, Gen.

Rose Jalagat no longer uses her real name--not since that day in June when the Philippine military found her husband's burned remains beneath a muddy rice field in the far outskirts of this embattled town, in a place they now call the "Killing Fields." For more than a year, Rose Jalagat had been a committed foot soldier and nurse in the Communist New People's Army, she says.

The Bush administration is all set to bring its "war on terrorism" to the Philippines. Hundreds of Green Berets, Navy SEALs and Marines are preparing to land on Jolo island and hunt down the Abu Sayyaf, a ruthless gang of kidnappers who style themselves Islamic militants. There's just one snag. The Philippine government, after apparently agreeing to let U.S. troops engage in combat, is balking now that the deal has become public.