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U.S. Troops to Stay On in Philippines
Monday, July 1, 2002
(13:43 GMT)
The Cable News Network

U.S. troops are training Filipino soldiers to help them defeat the Abu Sayyaf rebels.
Image Credit: The Associated Press.

Martin Burnham was killed in a shootout last month when the Philippine military came across rebels in the jungle and began firing. Gracia Burnham survived the rescue operation.

MANILA, Philippines -- CNN
The Philippines and the United States have agreed to hold a second round of exercises after the current maneuvers with Filipino troops end this month.

"The new (exercises) ... will follow after the end of the (current exercises) on July 31," President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo said Monday in a speech to local officials in Tagum city on southern Mindanao island.

The U.S.-Philippine exercises, which began early this year, were the first and biggest expansion of the U.S.-led war on terror outside Afghanistan.

More than 1,200 U.S. troops have been training Filipino soldiers in jungle warfare and counter terrorism in the Southern Philippines to help them defeat the Muslim Abu Sayyaf rebels.

The United States has linked the Islamic militant group, who are notorious for their kidnappings, with the al Qaeda terror network.

* Rebel leader killed
(More: CNN Online News Source)
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Dan