Kato warns US troops in war games

The head of a breakaway Moro rebel group warned American soldiers not to enter its territories in Mindanao or they may become targets.

Ameril Umra Kato, who now calls his group Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Movement, made the warning inside his camp on Sunday, ahead of a joint military exercise between the government and US troops scheduled for August 30 in Central Mindanao.

“They (American troops) are not helping in resolving the problem. Filipino soldiers only get strength boost because of them,” Kato said.

The Balance Piston 11-3 is a bilateral exercise that involves the Armed Forces of the Philippines and the US Armed Forces to enhance interoperability of both forces in the conduct of joint training against external threats, according to Lieutenant Colonel Prudencio Asto, spokesperson of the Army’s 6th Infantry Division.

“Kato is out of context in the exercises. It’s purely training of our men,” Asto said.

The former leader of Moro Islamic Liberation Front’s (MILF) 105th Command said his followers had seen American soldiers, along with their Filipino counterparts, inside their “controlled area” in Maguindanao searching for suspects in the 2009 massacre of 57 people, including at least 32 media workers.

“This time, if they are going to go in our territories, we might be forced to target them,” Kato said.

Kato bolted from the main MILF over disagreements over the handling of the peace process and for allegedly abandoning him in the aftermath of the 2008 violence that escalated after the government failed to sign a proposed agreement on a Bangsamoro homeland.

Kato took up fundamentals of religion as a scholar in Imam Mohammad Binzaud Islamic School in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia in 1985.

He claimed to have more than 800 followers, both armed and unarmed.

Asto said he was awaiting guidance from Armed Forces headquarters on how to address Kato’s case.