Troop increase greeted with grenades

TABIAWAN, Philippines -- Grenade blasts ripped through a market and a movie theater in the southern Philippines on Saturday, killing at least five people as more U.S. troops arrived under tight security to join a growing American force on a new front in the campaign against terrorism.

The blasts -- one a few miles from a base where U.S. military personnel are staying -- underscored dangers they could face while advising and training Philippine troops fighting the Abu Sayyaf, a Muslim rebel group U.S. officials say has been linked with al-Qaida.

Two C-130 transport planes with 30 to 40 special forces troops aboard flew in from Okinawa, Japan, the second landing on a darkened runway in Zamboanga city with its lights extinguished. It was unloaded with the engines running and then took off again.

The soldiers are joining 250 Americans already in Zamboanga for a six-month exercise focusing on Basilan, an island about 20 miles south of Zamboanga where the guerrillas have been holding an American missionary couple captive for months.

The U.S. contingent is to grow to 660 in the coming weeks, including about 160 special forces troops who are the only American personnel allowed to travel to Basilan. An advance team flew to the island Saturday to get set up at a Philippine army camp.

One grenade exploded at dawn on Jolo, an island 75 miles southwest of Basilan where an Abu Sayyaf faction has a presence, killing at least five people and injuring more than 40 near a crowded market, authorities said.

Hours later, a grenade exploded at a movie theater in downtown Zamboanga, the region's largest city, injuring at least five people watching "The Lord of the Rings."

The theater is about 4 miles from the Philippine military's Southern Command headquarters, where the U.S. personnel are staying.

Philippine officials said they suspected the Abu Sayyaf but that the blasts would not affect the exercise.

The director of the exercises for the Philippine side, Brig. Gen. Emmanuel Teodosio, said security for the Americans was adequate and would not be increased.

"Any addition could just alarm people," he said.

"We are confident with our force-protection plan," said a U.S. military spokesman, Sgt. Michael Farris.

Military officials said the American troops, who are permitted to use their weapons only in self-defense, are prepared to handle threats from the Abu Sayyaf as they boost their presence on Basilan.