US pulls out troops in Sulu village after blast

United States authorities have pulled out its troops from a village in Indanan, Sulu following Tuesday’s roadside blast that killed two US Navy personnel and one Filipino Marine, a Philippine military official said on Wednesday. "As a precaution, pinullout muna ng US authorities yung mga engineers nila dun sa Barangay Kagay," said Maj. Gen. Ben Dolorfino, chief of the Armed Forces’ Western Mindanao Command (Westmincom). (As a precaution, US authorities have pulled out for the meantime their engineers in Kagay village.) The involved American personnel were moved to Camp Teodulfo Bautista, base of the 3rd Marine Brigade, in Jolo town. They were all members of US Seabees that have been overseeing the developmental projects in the province. Dolorfino said despite the pull-out, the Philippine military would continue securing the humanitarian projects in the area, which include the construction of two school buildings and a deep well. "A barbaric act" Malacañang, meanwhile, condemned Tuesday’s attack, which was believed to be perpetrated by the al-Qaeda-linked Abu Sayyaf group. “We are very sad and we mourn the death of the soldiers. The act was very shameless because they are doing a humanitarian mission. We deplore this kind of barbaric act," said deputy presidential spokesman Anthony Golez. Golez said President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo has already ordered the Armed Forces of the Philippines and the Philippine National Police (PNP) to look into the blast and find out if it particularly targeted US soldiers. He, however, said the Philippines would continue to receive additional foreign troops despite the bomb attack. Under the RP-US Visiting Forces Agreement, American troops are deployed to the Philippines for purposes of training their local counterparts in the fight against terrorism. Land mine The military said the fatalities were part of a group that was overseeing the construction of a five-kilometer road linking the villages of Kagay and Langpas. The US Humvee they were riding had rolled over a land mine, triggering the explosion. Dolorfino said the use of land mine only showed that the Abu Sayyaf is running out of manpower. "They want to resort to asymmetric warfare without using people, to continue on retaliating against us," he said. He added that they have already deployed “reactionary forces" to augment their existing strength in Sulu following the attack. He did not give the exact number of the additional troops but said they could be summoned 24 hours a day. - GMANews.TV