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American Morning

No Confirmation of Abu Sabaya's Death

Aired June 21, 2002 - 08:04   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Let's take a look at some of the other news making the headlines today. And we start in the Philippines, where a leader of Abu Sayyaf guerrillas in the Philippines, Abu Sabaya, this man is missing in the sea following a battle with government forces. It's believed that Abu Sabaya was shot during the fire fight, but there's no government confirmation that he is dead.

There is also no word that U.S. troops were involved in the fight. And you're seeing these pictures of the Burnhams, Martin and Gracia Burnham. The reason we're interested in this particular rebel, he is believed to be at the head of the kidnapping that ended with the death of Martin Burnham and, of course, Garcia Burnham finally making it safe back here to the U.S.

Let's get more on this particular man and bring in Barbara Starr from the Pentagon to tell us more about Abu Sabaya and the possible involvement of U.S. troops, who are, of course, over there in the Philippines -- Barbara, good morning.

BARBARA STARR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Daryn.

Well, that is correct. U.S. troops were not involved in the combat, but they did provide, according to Pentagon sources, advice and assistance to the Philippine military in communications, intelligence, reconnaissance and surveillance of this entire operation. And while they were not involved in the combat, that may soon be about to change.

The U.S. is expanding its ongoing training program of the Philippine Army that has been going on for some months now. For the next several weeks, what the military, what the Pentagon is going to be doing is providing advisers that will accompany Philippine Army troops into the field, providing them advice and assistance while they're actually on operational missions for the first time.

Until now, it's all been not during operational missions. It's been classroom training and field training. And by going out into the field now with the Philippine Army troops, of course, this possibly could place U.S. troops in harm's way. This will now be going on for the next several weeks.

And as we said, the U.S. has had an ongoing training program with the Philippine Army for some time. There are about 1,300 U.S. troops in the Philippines. About 160 of them do this counter-terrorism training for the Philippine Army.

Now, as far as this mission goes, it may not be exactly over. U.S. Naval forces may be asked in the hours ahead to conduct some search and recovery mission off the coast of the Philippines where this all took place, but there's no final word on that just yet -- Daryn.

KAGAN: Barbara, about this possible expansion of the U.S. troops' role in the Philippines, haven't there been some very tight restrictions on what they're able to do because of provisions in the Philippine constitution?

STARR: Exactly right. The Philippine constitution does prohibit foreign military forces from actually conducting combat operations inside their country. So all of this is going to be, of course, labeled a training mission, and what will happen is the U.S. special forces will accompany Philippine Army forces out into the field and provide them advice and training during these operational missions.

But because they will be out in the field and they possibly could encounter Abu Sayyaf or other forces, enemy forces, this would place U.S. troops in harm's way. They will go armed into the field, but it will be solely for their own self-defense if they do encounter enemy forces.

KAGAN: Well, it'll also be interesting to see how this is received in the Philippines, where this has been a very political, a hot button issue.

Barbara Starr at the Pentagon, thank you very much.

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