MANILA, Philippines (Xinhua) - After an earlier denial by the US embassy in the Philippines, Manila says US personnel were indeed involved in Oplan Exodus, the botched police operation in the town of Mamasapano, province of Maguindanao on Jan. 25.
A report released Thursday by the Board of Inquiry (BOI) of the Philippine National Police (PNP) confirmed that there were six Americans at the command center of the PNP's elite Special Action Force (SAF), hours before police commandos swooped down on the lair of wanted Malaysian terrorist Zulkifli bin Hir, alias "Marwan, " and his Filipino sidekick, Basit Usman.
In the pre-dawn operation, Marwan was killed while Usman escaped. But in the ensuing gun battle, 44 SAF troops, 14 combatants of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) and five civilians were killed.
The BOI, which was tasked to investigate the encounter, said the information about the presence of the Americans at the SAF command post was provided by Police Superintendent Michael John Mangahis, a senior SAF official, who was also involved in the daring police mission.
"Mangahis revealed that six American nationals were at the TCP (tactical command post) in Shariff Aguak starting on the eve of the operations to provide real-time information to the SAF troops, " the report said.
It said in the retrieval operations, US forces also helped in the medical evacuation of the wounded SAF commandos.
Police General Getulio Napenas, the relieved SAF commander, also told the board that he handed Marwan's left index finger, which the SAF troopers cut off for DNA samples, to two officials of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in General Santos City three days after the police operation.
Later the FBI confirmed that through their preliminary DNA testing, the finger was from the slain terrorist.
Quoting the sworn statement of Napenas, the board said the PNP' s "US counterparts had been providing reliable information" about Marwan and Usman.
Napenas said the information given by the US authorities "was considered in covert operations against the high-value targets."
In its reaction to the BOI report, the Philippine Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said it checked reports of US involvement in the SAF operation with the US embassy and the embassy denied the US involvement.
An embassy official, however, admitted that US troops helped evacuate casualties in the Mamasapano raid but that the operation was "planned and executed by Philippine authorities."
Philstar
