ZAMBOANGA CITY, Philippines: At least two dozen members of the Guam National Guard are heading to the southern Philippines where US troops are helping Filipino soldiers defeat terrorism.
The soldiers are part of the Matua Platoon and would be deployed for at least six months in the restive region of the southern Philippines, according to the Kuam News.
"By next week 31 members of the Guam National Guard's Matua Platoon will head to the Southern Philippines to join forces with the PI-American Task Force. These men will be gone for six months and they are the only Guam representatives that will be deployed in the Southern Philippines at this time," the report said on Thursday.
Kuam News said the troops went over various types of training scenarios. It was unknown whether the US troops would be deployed to Sulu province where American forces are aiding Filipino soldiers in fighting the Al-Qaeda-linked Abu Sayyaf group.
Some 600 US troops have been deployed in the southern region since 2001, most of them in Zamboanga City and Sulu, where they maintain a forward operating base.
Last year, two US Special Forces soldiers and a Filipino marine were killed in a roadside bombing in Sulu. Although security officials deny US forces were directly involved in combat operations, there were numerous reports from civilians that American soldiers actually participated in the operations aimed at capturing or killing militant leaders in Sulu and other areas in Mindanao.
In 2008, the Guam Army National Guard released a brief statement confirming that a local serviceman was unharmed following an attack on his unit in Sulu. It said the serviceman was attached to a platoon with the 294th Infantry Regiment deployed in Sulu.
A US soldier was also killed and another wounded in a bomb attack at a roadside cafe near an army base in Zamboanga City in October 2002.
