2 US troops killed in Philippines blast

MANILA, Philippines — Two U.S. sailors and a Filipino marine were killed Tuesday in a roadside bomb believed planted by al-Qaida linked militants, the first American troops to die in an attack in the Philippines in seven years.

The Philippine military suspected Abu Sayyaf militants were behind the attack against the U.S. Navy troopers on the southern island of Jolo.

The same group killed an American Green Beret with a motorcycle bomb in nearby Zamboanga city in October 2002. American counterterrorism troops were deployed to the region earlier that year.

Jolo lies in a poor, predominantly Muslim region. The American forces have been providing combat training and weapons to Filipino troops battling the Abu Sayyaf.

Philippine officials described the blast as being caused by a land mine, a description normally used for military-grade weapons. The U.S. Embassy said it was an improvised explosive device.

Military spokesman Lt. Col. Romeo Brawner said a Philippine military convoy joined by U.S. troops was on its way to Kagay village in Jolo’s Indanan township where troops were building two school buildings and digging artesian wells when the land mine exploded.

One U.S. soldier died at the scene, while another who was critically wounded in the blast died a short time later, Brawner told The Associated Press. A Filipino marine also died.

The Americans were from the Naval Construction Battalions, or Seabees, which gather skilled craftsmen like electricians and carpenters into special military units.

“They were not in combat,” Brawner said. “These U.S. soldiers were there in the area to supervise the developmental projects in Indanan.”

In a statement, the U.S. Embassy said the deaths happened when the soldiers’ vehicle struck an improvised explosive device at about 8:45 a.m. (0045 GMT) during a resupply mission for the school construction project.

The troops were not identified pending notification of next of kin.

The Philippine government offered its condolences to the families of the slain soldiers and praised them for helping undertake civic projects and secure peace on Jolo, about 590 miles (950 kilometers) south of Manila, the capital.

The U.S. Seabees were immediately pulled back from the school project in Indanan after the attack, Dolorfino said.

He said U.S troops have long been targets for militants in the south, and Tuesday’s blast would not likely cause any change in Washington’s resolve to keep troops there.

Brawner said no suspects were immediately identified in the attack.

But Maj. Gen. Benjamin Dolorfino, a military commander overseeing counterterrorism campaigns in the south, told The Associated Press that Abu Sayyaf had likely planted the explosive in Indanan, where the militants have jungle strongholds.

The group has been blamed for numerous bombings, beheadings and kidnappings of Filipinos and foreigners in the south in recent years.

Two weeks ago, a suspected Abu Sayyaf militant or sympathizer hurled a grenade near U.S. troops unloading supplies at Jolo’s pier. The Americans were not hurt, Dolorfino said.

Abu Sayyaf attempts to sabotage U.S. projects indicated the militants were wary of losing community support, he said.

“They know that once education sets in, the villagers will be well-informed and hard to fool and to recruit,” Dolorfino said.

Abu Sayyaf is believed to have about 400 fighters, to have received funds from al-Qaida and is suspected of sheltering militants from the larger Southeast Asian terror group Jemaah Islamiyah.

An estimated 600 U.S. troops are currently stationed in the Philippines, mostly in the southern front lines of the Philippine military’s operations against the Abu Sayyaf group and Jemaah Islamiyah.