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Muslim cleric Abhasaan Idlasan sat quietly under the shade of a coconut tree as an MG-520 attack helicopter roared overhead, signalling the arrival of a US military convoy he now associates with development aid.
Idlasan, in his long white robe and Muslim headscarf, is the spiritual guide to the several hundred families in this remote and impoverished coastal village on the southern island of Jolo, a key Southeast Asian theatre in the US-led "war on terror".
The area has changed little in the past 50 years. Many villagers live in houses on stilts, electricity is limited, fresh water is a daily problem and school remains a luxury only a few can afford.
Waves lap on the jagged shoreline, and children swim in the shallows beneath the rickety stilts as their fathers drydock their small fishing boats.
For years residents lived literally under the barrel of the gun, with marauding al Qaeda linked Abu Sayyaf militants terrorising them and taunting government authority that seemed powerless hundreds of kilometres (miles) away in Manila.
"We are thankful that the atrocities have stopped. The Americans helped us when they arrived, they helped repair our mosque and renovate the school," Idlasan, 54, told AFP recently as he joined a group of local officials in greeting visiting US envoy Kristie Kenney and military officials.
"The soldiers are very polite, they are specially playful with children," he said. "We feel safe having them around."
Idlasan's support is key to the US troops' goal of "winning hearts and minds" here and elsewhere in Jolo, considered by defence experts as an important Southeast Asian front in the US-led global counter terrorism campaign.
As the local cleric, Idlasan is highly respected and his openness allows joint US and Philippine forces to move towards finally isolating and crushing the Abu Sayyaf.
During a two-week visit, the troops built a four-kilometre (two-and-a-half-mile) road and bridges linking Bato-Bato to other towns. "We need local support. This is key to winning the long-term objective in finally eradicating terrorism," said Jesus Dureza, President Gloria Arroyo's chief adviser on peace who also joined the sortie.
"We are slowly getting there, but it will take a long time," he said. While US troops are prevented from joining combat, Philippine officials said they had provided intelligence that led to the recent killing of Abu Sayyaf leaders Khadaffy Janjalani and Abu Solaiman.
The two had engineered the Abu Sayyaf's worst terrorist attacks as well as the kidnapping and murder of two US citizens in 2001.
The self-styled militants have now disintegrated into smaller units in Jolo's jungles with Umar Patek and Dulmatin, two Indonesians who are leaders of Jemaah Islamiyah (JI), which was behind the Bali bomb attacks in 2002.
And with the help of the local community, officials said the rebels would be flushed out of their hideouts and neutralised. "They are now disorganised and leaderless," said Major General Eugenio Cedo, local military commander, stressing that public support for the US-Philippine joint exercises could lead to "isolating the Abu Sayyaf".
"If the people see a lot of development projects, they will realise that terrorism is not the way to go," he said, stressing that those turning in Abu Sayyaf members under the US government's rewards for justice programme also included close friends and relatives of the militants.
"When we inaugurate a road built by the Americans under a joint project, the people will see concrete government support," he said, adding that the militants would not be given time to consolidate and launch fresh attacks.
Ambassador Kenney vowed more support from Washington in the form of humanitarian aid and military assistance.
"We will keep going because this is an important part of the country and the people here deserve a chance for peace," she said, adding that a small number of US military personnel would remain on the island to advise and assist Filipino forces.
Nearby, a US soldier distributed sweets and stickers to school children carrying miniature US and Philippine flags. They erupt in embarrassed laughter, but appear oblivious to the presence of the automatic rifle slung over his shoulder.

Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2007

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