Word: sayyaf
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Gracia and Martin Burnham were working as missionaries in the Philippines when they were abducted in May 2001 by the terror and kidnap gang known as Abu Sayyaf. More than a year later, Philippine soldiers swooped in to save them, but Martin and another hostage, Ediborah Yap, were fatally shot during the ensuing firefight. Now home in Kansas, Gracia has found herself in the cross fire again over her memoir, In the Presence of My Enemies. Even before the book was released in the Philippines, reports emerged that Burnham charges a Philippine soldier with firing the shot that killed...
...after the Davao blast, a spokesman for the Abu Sayyaf group called a radio station in Zamboanga to claim responsibility for the attack. Philippine authorities immediately shot his claim down. The home turf of Abu Sayyaf, which specialized in kidnapping-for-ransom before dedicating itself to jihad last year, is far away on the islands of Jolo and Basilan, southwest of Mindanao. Some suspect that the Abu Sayyaf wanted to take the blame to sound more fearsome than it currently is?or to shield the MILF, which is in peace talks with Manila. Those talks are now stalled, intensifying...
...negotiations between the separatist Moro Islamic Liberation Front and the administration of Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo are in bad shape. Recent evidence linking the rebels to al-Qaeda has helped fuel a troubling escalation. The U.S., which last year assisted the Philippine army's efforts to eliminate Abu Sayyaf guerrillas on the southern island of Basilan, will soon send 1,700 troops back to the region, including 350 members of the special forces, to help finish the job. But this go-round they'll be on the island of Jolo, a far more lawless place, and unlike last year...
...appeared to be rigged to trigger the unexploded bomb. Investigators discovered that the phone had registered an incoming call from another mobile (which they believe was an attempt to detonate the explosive). Philippine intelligence sources say that several calls had been made from that second phone to senior Abu Sayyaf figures. There was also a single call to Husain made on Oct. 3 at 11:34 a.m.?one day after a bombing in Zamboanga City attributed to Abu Sayyaf had killed three people, including a U.S. soldier...
...That shows, according to one summary by Philippine intelligence, that Iraqi operatives are covertly planning terrorist attacks in the Philippines and elsewhere, "using enfranchised radical groups in various places around the world." But allegations of Iraqi-Abu Sayyaf collusion remain ill-documented. "Perhaps the supposed links will become clearer later," says Dr. Asiri Abubakar, Professor of Asian Studies at the University of the Philippines, "but as of now they're at best tenuous." Iraq, not surprisingly, charged the Philippines with doing the Americans' bidding. Some regional intelligence sources agree. "I think the Philippines did it to curry favor with Washington...