ZAMBOANGA CITY, 19 December 2007 — A helicopter transporting US soldiers came under fire while flying over the southern Philippine island of Basilan and officials yesterday said one of the passengers was wounded.
Maj. Eugene Batara, an army spokesman, said the attack on the chopper occurred on Monday and that one passenger was injured after debris hit him.
“A civilian helicopter conducting a routine support and logistics flight with the Joint Special Operations Task Force-Philippines was hit by small-arms fire over Basilan island,” he said in a press statement. “The helicopter landed at the airfield in Zamboanga without difficulty.”
US Embassy Deputy Press Attaché Karen Schinnerer said the injured man was an American civilian, but she also did not provide further details.
Mayor Joel Maturan of Unkaya Pukan town in Basilan said witnesses saw the chopper being hit by hostile fire, and that fighting raged yesterday in the same town between government troops and gunmen.
A military officer, Lt. Col. Vincent Teodoro, said two suspected Abu Sayyaf gunmen were killed in an assault on the militants’ encampment by Marines.
There were about 40 militants at the camp, comprising both Abu Sayyaf and “rogue elements” of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front led by Furuji Indama, said Teodoro. Indama is wanted in connection with the beheading of 10 Marines in July in Basilan province, he said.
One soldiers was wounded in yesterday’s gunfight, Teodoro said.
Teodoro said battles continued sporadically throughout the day and reinforcements increased the number of militants to about 100. Government reinforcements also were pouring into the area, he said.
The US government and the European Union have blacklisted the Abu Sayyaf — notorious for deadly bombings, beheadings and ransom kidnappings — as a terrorist organization.
The Philippine military has credited counterterrorism training by the US military for putting the Abu Sayyaf on the run and for the killing and arrest of its key leaders.
