WORLD> Asia-Pacific
Gun shots force Phil. military copters to emergency land
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2009-08-16 18:09

MANILA: Suspected militants fired gun shots at two low-flying military helicopters above the restive southern Philippine island of Basilan, forcing them to make emergency landing, an army spokesman said Sunday.

Lt. Col. Romeo Brawner, a chief spokesman of the Armed Forces of the Philippines, said the UH-1H choppers being fired on carried Basilan provincial Marine commander Brig. Gen. Rustico Guerrero and two cameramen. The journalists were slightly wounded in the emergency landing.

Related readings:
Gun shots force Phil. military copters to emergency land Storm relief helicopter crashes into mountain
Gun shots force Phil. military copters to emergency land Helicopter crashes in Upper Austria
Gun shots force Phil. military copters to emergency land Helicopter crashes in Afghanistan, 16 killed
Gun shots force Phil. military copters to emergency land Official: Helicopter crash kills 6 in Russia
Brawner said the choppers left Ungkaya Pukan town in Basilan early Sunday morning for Zamboanga city but were forced to make "precautionary landing" in Lamitan, Basilan.

The spokesman said the military suspected that the 380-member Abu Sayyaf militant group was behind the attack.

Government troops engaged in a major battle with Abu Sayyaf militants in Basilan jungles last Wednesday. Twenty-three soldiers and at least 30 rebels were killed in the day-long clash.

Philippine President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, who on Saturday flew to Zamboanga to condole with slain soldiers' families, ordered troops to "annihilate" the Abu Sayyaf group blamed for a series of terrorist attacks and kidnappings in the country over the past decade.