US military aircraft have started flying surveillance flights over the southern Philippines in the battle against Muslim rebels in the Asian nation, the Washington Postreported today.
Citing a senior US defence official, the newspaper reported the previously undisclosed flights were meant to complement a growing contingent of US soldiers on the ground in training exercises with Philippine forces.
US soldiers moved into the southern Philippines last month for joint exercises aimed at wiping out Abu Sayyaf guerrillas, linked by Washington to Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda network.
The senior defense official told the Postthat by later this spring, the information gained from the spy planes, combined with better trained and equipped Filipino troops, would "jolt" the Abu Sayyaf guerrillas.
Images and signals gained from the air would be combined with ground patrols to produce better intelligence, the official was quoted as saying.
The intelligence could be used "to create a predictive pattern about where these people are likely to go, as opposed to getting a sighting report and going out and chasing them," he said.
The Postsaid the intelligence flights, being made by navy and air force aircraft, were still in the early stages and do not currently land in the Philippines.
About 80 US special forces soldiers are deployed on the southern Philippine island of Basilan. Another 80 US soldiers are expected to arrive soon as part of a six-month training exercise scheduled to last six months and involve 660 Americans, the Postsaid.