Word: sayyaf
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...expenditure of €40,000 on food, motor boats and vans, and even cell-phone cards. "I think it was Umar Patek who was doing the group's accounts," says Sabban. ICG terror expert Collier thinks Patek is more than just a terrorist bean counter. "He commands Abu Sayyaf Group forces and he can be seen as an ASG commander in his own right," Collier says, "as well as a JI freelancer. Dulmatin and Patek are both still in communication with allies in Indonesia, and there have been attempts over the last few years to smuggle suicide bombers from Java...
...south of Manila. The MILF has been in sporadic peace talks over its claim for territory in the south, but a clash with government troops last year left 14 marines dead, 10 of them beheaded. Ranging across the rugged Mindanao terrain and further south is the Islamic terrorist Abu Sayyaf Group, which remains in open warfare with the government...
...Network of Violence While breakaway elements of the MILF are accused of sheltering the bombers, so is Abu Sayyaf. One former member of that group told TIME the bombers are seen as heroes. "They know how to to preach, how to provide financial assistance, and they know how to make bombs," says the former terrorist over tea and sweets in his village home on Jolo. "They are valued." Philippine police confirm that Abu Sayyaf has embraced Dulmatin's bomb tutorials. Superintendent Leocardio Santiago, who heads the Special Action Force, says Dulmatin's bomb-making handiwork has been apparent...
...Patikul, on Jolo island, General Juancho Sabban, who heads the country's anti-terrorism task force, gives a guided tour of a former Abu Sayyaf base close to one of his forward operating bases. "See how difficult it is to see the bunkers," he says, striding nimbly through the chest-high grass that covers the hillside. Hidden in the grass are the 2-m-deep spider holes from which Abu Sayyaf guerrillas popped up to kill six of his men during a 2006 firefight...
...race is on: if the defiance of men like Chief is to be encouraged, General Sabban and the country's armed forces must uproot the remnants of Abu Sayyaf, and do so before they lose their grip on the hearts and minds they've so lately...