MORE THAN 400 U.S. soldiers, mostly support staff, already have arrived for the six-month exercise, but the deployment of 32 special forces members on Sunday to one of the Abu Sayyaf group’s island bases marks the start of the risky part of the U.S. mission.
       The bulk of the 160 special forces members are to arrive Monday and deploy to Basilan island in batches later. With 500 support staff, the planned U.S. military deployment is the second-biggest after Afghanistan in the U.S.-led war on terrorism.

U.S. and Philippine officials on Wednesday signed the terms for the exercise called Balikatan, or “shoulder to shoulder,” delineating a non-combat role for the Americans. 

“You cannot get away from the training format,” said Philippine military chief of staff Gen. Diomedio Villanueva, who flew to the southern port city of Zamboanga on Thursday for last-minute checks on preparations.

Gen. Charles Holland, head of the U.S. military’s Special Operations Command, also flew to Zamboanga for lunch with U.S. troops housed at a sprawling military camp, its gate fortified with camouflage-painted sandbags.

Lt. Col. Danilo Servando, spokesman for the Philippine military’s Southern Command, said 160 U.S. Special Forces will be allowed to travel to Basilan in batches to observe Filipino troops battling the Abu Sayyaf, which is holding Wichita, Kan., missionaries Gracia and Martin Burnham and Filipino nurse Ediborah Yap.

Local officials in Basilan said they had received information from villagers that two Abu Sayyaf commanders were ready to surrender to the government and hand over the Burnhams, following disputes with other guerrilla commanders.

“That’s a tactical matter. We’ll discuss it when there are results already,” the chief of staff of the Philippines military Diomedio Villanueva said. 

SELF-DEFENSE
The Americans, who must undergo brief cultural sensitivity training, will be armed but can fire only in self-defense.

Officials said the exercise, due to end in June, is aimed at strengthening the Philippines’ ability to fight the Abu Sayyaf, a ragtag group of a few hundred men who officials have linked in the past to Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaida terror network.

On Basilan, a large-scale Philippine military offensive has reduced rebel strength to fewer than 100 men but failed to capture key leaders or rescue the last hostages from scores taken in a kidnapping spree that began last May. Some have escaped or been freed — reportedly for ransoms — while others, including American Guillermo Sobero, were beheaded.

The United States has been providing weapons to the poorly equipped Philippine military. During a White Hoouse visit in November, President Gloria Macapagal secured $100 million in assistance.

Left-wing groups have staged almost daily protests at the U.S. Embassy and the presidential palace in Manila against the war exercise. They say the exercise may violate constitutional limits on the presence and activities of foreign troops. The protests have remained small amid public indignation over the Abu Sayyaf’s many crimes.

Several dozen Muslim protesters, concerned that any attack on American troops could escalate conflict, rallied Thursday outside Isabela, the Basilan provincial capital, chanting “Allahu Akbar (God is great) and “U.S. troops out!” before dispersing peacefully.