Word: sayyaf
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...year-old led the armed men, members of the feared Abu Sayyaf guerrilla group, to the resort, where they rounded up 20 hostages?17 Filipinos and 3 Americans?and transported them to their lair on Basilan Island in the far south of the archipelago. Upon arriving they seized 10 more hostages, mostly fishermen. Then the bloodbath began. At week's end, the group had been attacked by the Philippine military and lost up to 14 fighters, including supreme Abu Sayyaf leader Khadaffy Janjalani. They raised the stakes by storming a church and a hospital and taking 200 more captives? reports...
...swifter and a lot more brutal. Over the past year, the rebels spent their ill-gotten riches on firepower: M-16s, Uzis, mortars, cannons, jeeps and the 50-seat speedboat which, with three monstrous 750- horsepower outboards, could outrun anything in the Philippine navy. The faction of Abu Sayyaf (literally "Bearer of the Sword") responsible for the raid has an unparalleled reputation for ruthlessness: when Philippine troops attacked last year, the group beheaded two hostages, including a Catholic priest, after first gouging out their eyes...
...kidnapping army that can only get more audacious with every success. With Washington's backing, Arroyo refused all negotiation and ordered 5,000 troops into the scattered Sulu archipelago to, in the words of operational commander Brigadier General Romeo Dominguez, "rescue and destroy." Unlike last year, the Abu Sayyaf has made no attempt to pretend the kidnappings are for any higher ideal than money. Group spokesman Abu Sabaya has talked before of the value of U.S. captives. "One American is worth 10 Europeans," he declared last year. But the only bounty being talked about is the $2 million Arroyo...
...Despite the fearsome reputation of the Abu Sayyaf, cemented in 1995 when the group massacred 53 civilians in a two-hour rampage in the southern town of Ipil, it is far from being a disciplined precision force. Cervantes, the fisherman, says the guerrillas were way off course when they spotted his lights. "They kept asking where Dos Palmas was," he says. The sky was getting light when they finally arrived at 5 a.m. on tiny Arreceffi island. Disarming the security guards, the gunmen went straight for the cabanas on stilts over the water, which go for $720 per couple...
...hostages were taking a morning wash in a jungle river. It was the start of a small war. After the first firefight, 2 soldiers were killed and 14 wounded, while up to 12 guerrillas were left dead or injured. According to a source inside the group, the Abu Sayyaf held a meeting in mid- battle to decide whether they should start killing their captives. "Maybe we will stage an execution," Abu Sabaya told a local radio station via cell phone, adding: "Welcome to the party." As the skirmishes continued overnight with helicopter gunships backing the government troops, the guerrillas picked...