Two U.S. servicemembers serving with the low-profile U.S. military contingent in the southern Philippines were killed by a roadside bomb on the island of Jolo, a stronghold of Islamic militant group Abu Sayyaf.
A U.S. Pacific Command news release said the two servicemembers -- described in news reports as Navy Seabees -- were killed when their vehicle struck a roadside bomb while conducting a resupply mission for a school construction project. The Seabees are the first American combat deaths in the Philippines in nearly seven years. A Filipino marine was also reportedly killed.
U.S. special operations forces have been running a low-key advisory mission in the Philippines since 2002. Max Boot and Richard Bennet paid a visit to the task force last year; their piece in the Weekly Standard is a good overview of the "less-is-more" approach to counterinsurgency in the Philippines. Joint Special Operations Task Force-Philippines has only around 600 personnel, and they are limited to training missions -- like the ordnance-disposal exercise pictured here -- and civil affairs projects. It's the traditional foreign internal defense approach: The military of the Philippines has to take the initiative, with behind-the-scenes support from U.S. advisors.
In both Iraq and Afghanistan, the U.S. military is used to taking the lead -- albeit in very different circumstances. But as the experience in the Philippines suggests, there are ways to conduct a counterinsurgency campaign without a large foreign force.
Still, nationalist sensitivities are a major issue in the Philippines. The U.S. troops are not supposed to do any fighting -- except in self-defense -- but the local press has raised allegations that the Americans have defied the rules of engagement and engaged in direct combat.
[PHOTO: U.S. Department of Defense]
