Word: sayyaf
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...Keeping Up the Pressure Now, however, Philippine authorities are saying they have the group on the run. With help from the U.S. military, they have focused on eliminating Abu Sayyaf leaders, embedding national troops and U.S. advisers in areas the group once regarded as its own, and winning local support with community projects. "The group has disintegrated," says Brigadier General Juancho Sabban, the Jolo-based head of Task Force Comet, the Philippines' counterterrorism effort. He believes Abu Sayyaf, which once boasted more than 1,000 men under arms, now numbers at most 250 fighters who dare not move around...
...takes visitors to his forward operating base in the former terrorist stronghold of Tugas, northwest of Jolo town. Accompanied by more than 50 soldiers in jeeps and 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...
...tactic of the security forces is identifying the terrorist group's leaders and picking them off one by one. The walls of military and police headquarters across the southern Philippines feature posters displaying photos of the most-wanted Abu Sayyaf and J.I. members - and the prices on their heads. Rewards of up to $5 million are funded by the U.S. State Department's Rewards for Justice Program, which has paid out over $10 million so far in the Philippines. It relies heavily on local informants like Chief. Thirteen of the 24 most-wanted faces on the latest chart are stamped...
...Retreating and Regrouping Officials claim their program has destroyed command structures and smashed morale and that Abu Sayyaf no longer publicly names its leaders for fear that they will be killed. The program has also cut off funding from al-Qaeda and other allies. "It was Janjalani who established connections with al-Qaeda and Jemaah Islamiah," says Sabban. "Now that he is killed there is nobody to replace him [as a go-between]. That's why we believe the organization is so weak. If we push it more, maybe we can finally eliminate it." Abu Sayyaf members are now said...
...Army Green Berets and Navy SEALs, are spread throughout the Philippines. Inside a nondescript, windowless building at the task force's Jolo Island base, a half-dozen soldiers are studying laptops. A large screen on the wall shows the video feed from an unmanned drone cruising over potential Abu Sayyaf hideouts in the jungle. The U.S. troops give vital advice about operations but are barred from taking part in combat missions and must stay well beyond small-arms range in any firefight. Says one slightly disgruntled Special Forces soldier: "With our rules of engagement, if I saw Dulmatin...