Word: abu
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...Founded in the late 1980s by Filipino Muslims who fought with al-Qaeda during the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan, Abu Sayyaf (Arabic for "Father of the Sword") aims to create an Islamic state in the southern islands of the mostly Catholic Philippines. Its bombings, kidnappings and assassinations have killed some 300 people and wounded hundreds more. Abu Sayyaf first caught the world's attention in 2000, when it used speedboats to snatch 21 tourists from a Malaysian beach resort within reach of Jolo. The following year it seized 20 more people from a resort on Palawan, in the southwest Philippines...
...Abu Sayyaf maintained ties with al-Qaeda, which provided large sums of money. It also forged links with Jemaah Islamiah (J.I.), the Indonesian group that carried out the Bali bombings in 2002, and gave sanctuary to some of the J.I. terrorists in return for cash, guns and bombmaking lessons. In 2004 Abu Sayyaf was blamed for one of the world's deadliest maritime terror attacks, when a Manila ferry exploded, killing 116 people. Last November the group was blamed for a Manila bombing that killed three people, including a Muslim congressman, and wounded a dozen more...
...Keeping Up the Pressure Now, however, Philippine authorities are saying they have the group on the run. With help from the U.S. military, they have focused on eliminating Abu Sayyaf leaders, embedding national troops and U.S. advisers in areas the group once regarded as its own, and winning local support with community projects. "The group has disintegrated," says Brigadier General Juancho Sabban, the Jolo-based head of Task Force Comet, the Philippines' counterterrorism effort. He believes Abu Sayyaf, which once boasted more than 1,000 men under arms, now numbers at most 250 fighters who dare not move around...
...Sabban takes visitors to his forward operating base in the former terrorist stronghold of Tugas, northwest of Jolo town. Accompanied by more than 50 soldiers in jeeps and armored vehicles, his convoy rumbles through small villages. Not long ago, the base's access road was a dirt track where Abu Sayyaf fighters came and went freely, using the dense rainforest as a retreat or as cover for ambushes; the main road through this part of the island was known as the Boulevard of Death. Now the road to the base is lined with houses, and local people wave...
...tactic of the security forces is identifying the terrorist group's leaders and picking them off one by one. The walls of military and police headquarters across the southern Philippines feature posters displaying photos of the most-wanted Abu Sayyaf and J.I. members - and the prices on their heads. Rewards of up to $5 million are funded by the U.S. State Department's Rewards for Justice Program, which has paid out over $10 million so far in the Philippines. It relies heavily on local informants like Chief. Thirteen of the 24 most-wanted faces on the latest chart are stamped...