Word: basilan
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Hunting terrorists on Basilan Island is a punishing game of hide-and-seek, as any Philippine soldier can tell you. The 5,000 Philippine troops on Basilan are looking for the last 80 or so heavily armed members of the Muslim rebel gang known as Abu Sayyaf (meaning "Bearer of the Sword"), who are on the run with three hostages in tow somewhere inside a 30-sq.-mi. patch. Stalking the rebels in jungle so dense that no light shines through the canopy of foliage, along jagged ridges often shrouded in fog, is like fighting in a dark closet with...
...visible action will concentrate on Abu Sayyaf as American soldiers join the patrols on Basilan Island. They are on a slippery slope between training and fighting. Their very presence makes them a target for terrorists and for the local Muslim populace, which has been bitterly anti-American since colonial times. Though they are called advisers, the Americans will be going on risky missions deep into the jungle. "You're coming as close as you can to direct combat when you go out on patrol," says Michael Vickers, a former Green Beret who is an analyst at Washington's Center...
...PHILIPPINES Beheadings As Philippine troops claimed to be closing in on Abu Sayyaf rebels on Basilan Island, they discoved three severed heads. The heads may have belonged to some of the 20 hostages seized by the rebels on Palawan Island on May 27. They were found in an area where the gunmen said they had decapitated one of the three Americans held hostage, Guillermo Sobero, on June...
...carried out a kidnapping on a Sipadan island diving resort in Malaysia last April, netting more than $425 million in ransom from European nations, Libya and Malaysia. Robot's surrender won't necessarily help the current hostages, who are being held by a different faction, but it means the Basilan-based rebels can no longer count on reinforcements?or on an easy escape route to other islands. If Commander Robot does give himself up, say palace sources, Arroyo will be there to meet him when he steps out of the jungle. Arroyo may not dwell on her feelings...
...rebels of the Abu Sayyaf, an Islamic militant group described by a U.S. official as "Kidnap Inc." The terrorists also grabbed a Kansas missionary couple, Martin and Gracia Burnham, who were celebrating their 18th wedding anniversary, and 13 Filipinos. They were forced into speedboats and hauled 400 km to Basilan, the terrorists' island lair off southern Mindanao. Rebels last week claimed they had beheaded Sobero, but the Philippine military said it couldn't confirm the killing...