Philippine Gunmen Ambush U.S. Sailors; One Missing

Reuters

MANILA, Philippines (June 5) - A U.S. Navy sailor was missing Tuesday after gunmen ambushed a group of American Navy men on a mountain trek north of the Philippine capital Manila, officials said.

The five sailors ''were ambushed by a group of eight armed people...while descending Mount Pinatubo,'' a volcano 60 miles north of Manila, the U.S. Embassy said in a statement.

The statement said the gunmen had identified themselves as communist rebels.

There were no reports that any of the men were injured.

The statement said four of the five returned safely to base but ''one of the American climbers is missing.'' It said the five Americans had gone on a trek to the volcano accompanied by three Philippine navy personnel and local guides.

Brig.-Gen. Enrique Galang, police commander in the area, had earlier told Reuters there was no indication the gunmen had taken the American ''because, otherwise, why would they let the others go?''

''It is possible he got separated from the others...we are launching search operations,'' Galang said.

Galang said the gunmen disarmed the Philippine navy personnel before letting the group go. The U.S. sailors, who were not carrying weapons, are in the Philippines to take part in joint military exercises. The mountain trek was not part of the exercise.

Communist rebels are known to be active in the area around Mount Pinatubo.

REUTERS  Reut10:39 06-05-01

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Galang said the gunmen disarmed the Philippine navy personnel before letting the group go. The U.S. sailors, who were not carrying weapons, are in the Philippines to take part in joint military exercises.

Originally Posted By uncle buck:
Sounds like  a liberty excursion. You don't go packin on liberty.

Quoted:
and 10 to 1 even if it was an assignment and they were packin they had no bulletts not even blanks thats just movie stuff....durring the gulf war they didnt want soldiers to have a magazine (unloaded) in the weapon at most ports while on guard dutty

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A U.S. sailor is missing in the jungles of the Philippines after his hiking group came under rebel fire, the Pentagon said Tuesday.

The sailor's name was not immediately released. A 100-member Filipino search party was to get under way at daybreak.

Officials said the sailor and four others were being escorted by Philippine soldiers on a site-seeing hike through the jungles of Mount Pinatubo when eight communist guerrillas ambushed them.

The missing sailor was ahead of his group when the firefight broke out, officials said. Officials do not believe the missing sailor was taken prisoner, although a separate guerrilla group in recent days has taken Americans hostage on a southern island as part of an ongoing campaign of violence.

Pressed on whether the sailor was kidnapped, Pentagon spokesman Rear Adm. Craig Quigley said the sailor was in "a different location than where the NPA members were" and that there was no "visual confirmation" he was captured.


Sailors had army escort

None of the others was injured in the firefight, Quigley said, and the

Officials said the sailor and four others were being escorted by Philippine soldiers on a site-seeing hike through the jungles of Mount Pinatubo when eight communist guerrillas ambushed them.

The missing sailor was ahead of his group when the firefight broke out, officials said. Officials do not believe the missing sailor was taken prisoner, although a separate guerrilla group in recent days has taken Americans hostage on a southern island as part of an ongoing campaign of violence.

Pressed on whether the sailor was kidnapped, Pentagon spokesman Rear Adm. Craig Quigley said the sailor was in "a different location than where the NPA members were" and that there was no "visual confirmation" he was captured.

None of the others was injured in the firefight, Quigley said, and the guerrillas eventually allowed the group to proceed down the mountain, but only after the Filipino armed escorts turned over their weapons.

Quigley said the group was not taken hostage at any point.


Hiking trips 'not uncommon'

The rebel group was identified as the New People's Army, the military wing of the Communist Party of the Philippines that has waged an armed struggle pushing its cause since 1969.

Mount Pinatubo, a volcanic peak that erupted in 1991 after hundreds of years of being dormant, is in the northern Philippines. Quigley said it is not uncommon for U.S. sailors to hike the mountain when they come into port -- tours that the United States arranges with the Philippines government.

"This is a very popular activity for tourists to undertake, (to) climb up Mount Pinatubo and back down," he said. "There has never been an incident of this type before."

Missing Sailor Sought in Philippines

By SEAN YOONG
.c The Associated Press

 
MANILA, Philippines (AP) - Philippine troops searched the slopes of Mount Pinatubo on Wednesday for a U.S. sailor who was missing after suspected communist guerillas attacked American and Filipino military personnel near the popular tourist destination.

Navy Lt. Scott Alan Washburn was believed to be lost on the 4,740-foot mountain, which brims with small craters and volcanic debris, said Rigoberto Tiglao, spokesman for President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo.

There was no sign of him as night fell. A helicopter search over an area of about 4 square miles was called off until daybreak. About 100 troops continued a ground search.

Mount Pinatubo is about 55 miles north of Manila. The five Americans, dressed in street clothes, were descending the volcano with four armed military escorts and two tour guides Tuesday when the suspected guerrillas fired.

There were at least 30 attackers, some wearing ski masks and armed with AK-47s, M-16s and grenade launchers, said Elmer Cato, a spokesman for the U.S.-Filipino military exercises the servicemen had been %mlink(STRY:; PHOTO:MLA107-060601; AUDIO:%mlink)  participating in.

Five of the attackers approached the group and took two M-16s and two pistols from the Filipino soldiers. They identified themselves as members of the New People's Army, which has been fighting a Marxist insurgency throughout the Philippines for more than three decades but recently reopened peace talks with the government.

When the assailants left after about an hour, the group realized Washburn was missing. Failing to find him, they trekked back to Clark Airfield in Pampanga province.

Arroyo ordered the military to ``exert all efforts'' to find Washburn, Tiglao said, adding that the American was probably lost in the expanse surrounding the volcano.

``There were no bloodstains in the area, so we believe he was unwounded in the attack,'' Cato said. ``The lieutenant is an experienced trekker, so he should be safe.''

Cato said the attackers did not seem to realize that the Americans were military personnel. None were wounded in the gunfire; one suffered a minor injury when he fell on a piece of wood.

Washburn, 33, of Celina, Ohio, is a 15-year Navy veteran who has been in the Philippines five times, Navy spokesman Lt. Cmdr. Jeff Davis said in Washington said.

``I don't know if he's alive. I hope he is. They can't rule out that he's been captured,'' the sailor's father, Donald Washburn of St. Mary's, Ohio, said Wednesday. ``He'll be found. I know he will.''

Filipino and U.S. forces are conducting joint exercises in the Philippines' Subic Bay. About 3,000 troops from both sides are participating in the 11-day exercise that began last Friday.

Pentagon spokesman Rear Adm. Craig Quigley said in Washington that the Mount Pinatubo tour was part of a ``very carefully structured liberty program'' worked out by the U.S. Embassy. It was the first time there had been a problem.

Cato said it was unlikely the incident was related to a hostage crisis in the southern Philippines, where Abu Sayyaf Muslim rebels are holding about 20 captives, including three Americans, on Basilan island, about 550 miles south of Manila.

I was in Olongapo during the fiftieth anniversary of the fall of Corregidor (on leave), but my hosts would not let me leave the house. They said that there were many NPA in that area, and I would never be seen again. I believed them then, and I would believe them now.