Pillbox blast spooks US troops in Sulu

09/16/2009

American troops fired their guns into the air apparently as a warning to any aggressor that they were ready to engage once attacked, after being startled by an explosion generated by a small, improvised bomb that was set off by an unidentified suspect at a wharf in the southern island province of Sulu late yesterday.

The blast, which was suspected to have been caused by a "pill box," rocked a wharf where US soldiers were unloading supplies from a boat in Jolo, the capital of Sulu, around 9:30 p.m., local military officials said.

Maj. Gen. Ben Dolorfino, commanding general of the military’s Western Mindanao Command (Wesmincom), said the bomb was thrown in front of the detachment of the Joint Internal Defense Force (JITF) at the Jolo pier and beside a closed vendor’s stall.

The JITF is manned jointly by the police and Philippine Marine troops.

Dolorfino, though, did not say how close the Americans were to the blast or how many soldiers were there.

"(The) Suspect lobbed the pill box from the mosque near the barter trade compound. (There were) No government or civilian casualty," he said.

When asked to confirm the report, Dolorfino said the US troops, detailed at the Task Force Sulu, Joint Special Operations Task Force-Philippines, indeed fired warning shots using their M16 rifles shortly after the explosion.

He, however, justified the American soldiers’ reaction.

"That’s what I heard. Of course, who would not be startled when there is sudden explosion? What would be your reaction? Are you going to just hide? Of course, you will (react and fire a) warning (shot) also," Dolorfino said.

He said he believed the setting off of the bomb was not meant to harm the US troops or anybody else.

"It was not intended to harm because it was pillbox, if it was intended to harm then it could have been a grenade…Personally, I think it was done not to hurt anybody but to make the soldiers react," he said.

Westmincom spokesman Major Ramon David Hontiveros said it was being determined if the bomb was intended for the Americans.

"There is an ongoing investigation into the blast. Soldiers found no shrapnel in the area and we still don’t know who was behind it," he said.

He said the lack of shrapnel indicated that the blast, which did not do any serious damage to the wharf, was probably caused by a crude home-made bomb called a "pill box."

Jolo police chief, Inspector Usman Pingay said the wharf was tightly secured before the explosion, adding they were investigating the incident.

The US embassy in Manila said it had no comment on the incident.

US troops have been rotating in the southern region since 2003 to train their Filipino counterparts against the Abu Sayyaf, a small gang of militants with links to al-Qaeda and blamed for the country’s worst terrorist attacks.

Sulu is a known lair of the Abu Sayyaf as well as its island province neighbor, Basilan.

Sulu, however, is also a known operational area of the Muslim secessionist group Moro Islamic Liberation Front.

At present, about 600 US troops are stationed in various major camps of the Armed Forces of the Philippines all over the country.

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