Source:
Los Angeles TimesA Philippine general says American intelligence guided his troops in a hunt for militants, but eight villagers were slain.IPIL, PHILIPPINES -- In a hut on stilts with paper-thin walls of bamboo strips, an off-duty Philippine soldier was asleep alongside four members of his family when the crackle of assault rifle fire and shudder of grenade blasts awakened them early last month.
Within minutes, Cpl. Ibnun Wahid, 35, was dead, along with seven other villagers, including two children, age 4 and 9, two teenagers and two women, one of them pregnant. All were shot at close range, witnesses said in interviews and sworn affidavits gathered by the provincial governor's staff to support expected criminal charges.
...
Gen. Ruben Rafael, commander of Philippine troops on the island, also known as Jolo, said in an interview that
a U.S. military spy plane circling high above this seaside village provided the intelligence that led to the Feb. 4 assault. He said the crew of the P-3 Orion turboprop, loaded with a sophisticated array of surveillance equipment, pinpointed the village as a stronghold and arms depot for the radical Islamist Abu Sayyaf movement. Government soldiers were ambushed in the area in August, Rafael said.
...
Without specifically confirming any flights over Ipil, U.S. Embassy spokeswoman Karen Schinnerer said that "an aerial reconnaissance vehicle" gathered intelligence over Sulu "at the request of, and in coordination with," Philippine forces.
LA TImesRead more:
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-deaths9mar09,0,2926498.story
How many more terra children and women do 'we' need to fight before 'we' have won the 'war' on terra?
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