US role in disastrous raid in the Philippines under scrutiny
A disastrous raid on alleged Islamic militants has ignited the worst political crisis yet for Philippine President Benigno Aquino - and questions about the extent of any US role in the operation are deepening his discomfort.
A disastrous raid on alleged Islamic militants has ignited the worst political crisis yet for Philippine President Benigno Aquino - and questions about the extent of any US role in the operation are deepening his discomfort.
Some Philippine lawmakers are asking whether the US military played a leading role in the operation in January, which ended with 44 police commandos dead in a field in the country's Muslim-majority south.
They point to reports that a US drone was flying over the area at the time, and said to have be beaming back real-time images to US commanders as the fiasco unfolded. The Senate president, Franklin Drilon, a powerful member of Aquino's ruling Liberal Party, is one of at least five senators to have raised questions about what the United States knew.
"Did the FBI know beforehand about this operation?" Drilon asked the head of the police commando unit Getulio Napenas, who lost his job over the affair, in one hearing.
"Or any US armed forces personnel, did they know about this operation beforehand?"
Under the terms of an anti-terrorism training deployment, the US is not permitted to engage in combat in the Philippines.
A US government official said that its troops helped evacuate casualties, but that the operation was "planned and executed by Philippine authorities", and declined to comment further.