Word: islanders
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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Just before dawn, residents of a small village on Jolo Island, in the southern Philippines, were woken by footsteps and muffled hoofbeats. Peeking out in the dim light, they saw dozens of heavily armed men marching past their houses. One was on horseback. With a pang of fear, some villagers recognized him: Khaddafy Janjalani, leader of the Abu Sayyaf terrorist group and one of Southeast Asia's most wanted men. They had seen his face in posters advertising a $5 million reward for his capture...
...Most of the villagers stayed indoors. But after dawn one man stole outside. He drove to the army headquarters in Jolo, the island's main town, where he alerted military officers to the terrorists' route and their likely destination. The next day a Philippine marine reconnaissance platoon ambushed Janjalani in his jungle hideout, killing the al-Qaeda-linked terrorist and delivering what authorities believe was a crushing blow to Abu Sayyaf's morale...
...million cash reward. Most people assumed he was headed for a new life overseas, where the terrorists could not find him. But today Chief, wearing sunglasses and a baseball cap as his only disguise, is sipping a soda at the home of a Filipino general on Jolo Island, not far from his village where he still lives. For the authorities, Chief's decision to stay is one of many signs that Abu Sayyaf is on the run. "They suspect me, definitely," he says of the Islamist group's dwindling membership. "They have tried to kill me. But I never thought...
...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 at the passing troops. Sabban points out with relish that the Army camp is on land owned by an Abu Sayyaf member and near the spot where Janjalani was killed...
...Eastwood is also correct that black soldiers represented a small fraction of the total force deployed on the island. That argument doesn't placate Yvonne Latty, a New York University professor and author of a book about African-American veterans. Black soldiers "had the most dangerous job," she says. "If you were going to show the soldiers' landing, you'd need to show [African-Americans] on the beach." In Flags of Our Fathers, which shows the landing in significant detail, African-Americans appear only in fleeting cutaway shots and in a photograph during the film's closing credits...