Word: sayyaf
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...years military, he's finding himself in the spotlight as the Army Special Operations Commander for Joint Task Force 510. That translates as the officer in charge of U.S. forces in the Philippines, deployed to help that country's army fight terrorism. The immediate enemy is Abu Sayyaf, a splinter faction of the wider Muslim secessionist movement in the southern Philippines. Years of fighting the Philippine military has reduced it to a group of around 80 fighters, mostly engaged in kidnapping and other forms of banditry. They currently hold three foreign hostages, two of them American. The hot, thick jungles...
...Locally, some people have charged mismanagement in Philippine Army operations, or even collusion with the Abu Sayyaf rebels. It seems you're entering into a contract with a group that is facing some serious accusations. They've denied those accusations, but does that in any way affect your preparation...
...conditions on Basilan conducive to tackling Abu Sayyaf...
...There is some popular support (for Abu Sayyaf) there. You might have a support system in excess of a couple hundred throughout the entire island. That's going to be a big challenge. That's not just a military answer; there's a civil-military piece to this whole thing. If a guy grows a crop and takes it across a mountain, and he takes it to market and he sells it, but coming back from the sale he gets robbed, and the government can't do anything to protect him, then there's a problem. So what we want...
...Speculation here is that if things go well against Abu Sayyaf in Basilan, the next target may be other members of the group in Jolo, or Moro Liberation Front guerrillas in Mindanao or even the communist New People's Army insurgents in Luzon...