Manila gets US patrol boats to fight militants

Philippine Marines onboard a new Small Unit Riverine Craft (SURC) take part in manoeuvres in Manila Bay during a handover ceremony at the Navy headquarters yesterday.AFP/ManilaThe US gave the Philippine military six patrol boats yesterday to be used in a southern region where armed militants are active, the military said. The small-unit riverine craft (SURCs) are part of a US programme to train and equip foreign military forces for “counter-terrorism”, Philippine Navy chief Vice Admiral Jose Alano said in a statement. “The SURCs will be deployed to augment our sea-based forces to address terrorism and lawlessness such as the current crisis in Mindanao,” Alano added. For the past three weeks, thousands of elite troops have been battling guerrillas of the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) who occupied several coastal villages in the key southern port of Zamboanga on Mindanao island. Mindanao and nearby island groups are also a hotbed of other armed groups including guerrillas, bandits and Abu Sayyaf, an extremist group blamed for the country’s worst terror attacks. Funded by the late Al Qaeda mastermind Osama bin Laden in the 1990s, Abu Sayyaf has targetted foreigners with kidnappings for ransom. The group killed two Americans in a 2001 hostage crisis that lasted more than a year. US troops have been based in the southern Philippines since 2002 to help train local troops in hunting down members of the Abu Sayyaf, which is on the US government’s list of so-called foreign terrorist organisations. Designed to patrol rivers and coastal areas, the high-speed, small-unit riverine craft can carry 14 fully-armed marines and six crew members, Philippine marine spokesman Captain Rowan Rimas said.