The United States gave the Philippine military six patrol boats on Wednesday to be used in a southern region where armed Muslim militants are active, the military said.
The small-unit riverine craft (SURCs) are part of a US programme to train and equip foreign military forces for “counter-terrorism”, Philippine Navy chief Vice Admiral Jose Alano said in a statement.
“The SURCs will be deployed to augment our sea-based forces to address terrorism and lawlessness such as the current crisis in Mindanao,” Alano added.
For the past three weeks, thousands of elite troops have been battling Muslim guerrillas of the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) who occupied several coastal villages in the key southern port of Zamboanga on Mindanao island.
Mindanao and nearby island groups are also a hotbed of other armed groups including communist guerrillas, bandits and Abu Sayyaf, an Islamic extremist group blamed for the country’s worst terror attacks.
Funded by the late al-Qaeda mastermind Osama bin Laden in the 1990s, Abu Sayyaf has targeted foreigners with kidnappings for ransom.