MB FILE — Six teenage Abu Sayyaf Group combatants (from second from left), handling weapons that look more like toys in their young hands, are accompanied by their commander Sulaiman Kasaran (left), when the group surrendered to authorities at an Army base in Basilan. (Nonoy E. Lacson)
Italian hostage Rolando Del Torchio was released on Friday on a southern Philippine island known as a stronghold of the Abu Sayyaf, an Islamic militant group.
Here are five facts about the Abu Sayyaf, which is notorious for kidnappings-for-ransom:
Origins
The group is a radical offshoot of a Muslim separatist insurgency that has claimed more than 100,000 lives in the south of the mainly Catholic Asian nation since the 1970s.
It was established in the 1990s with funds from a relative of Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.
Although the Abu Sayyaf is believed to be made up of just a few hundred gunmen, it has defied a decade-long US-military campaign to destroy it and regularly kidnaps foreigners who venture near its sphere of influence.
Methods
Sallying forth in fast boats from bases in the Muslim-populated islands of Jolo and Basilan, the Abu Sayyaf snatches local and foreign victims and demands ransom payments for their freedom.
Hostages, many of them western tourists but also Christian missionaries, are hidden amongst sympathetic Muslim communities on Jolo or Basilan, about 950 kilometres (590 miles) from Manila. Victims are often murdered if ransoms are not paid.
Kidnapping spree
The group has abducted 22 foreigners and more than a dozen Filipinos since 2014. It ransomed off a German yachting couple, with millions of dollars believed to have been paid. It murdered two other victims, including a Malaysian tourist snatched from the Malaysian port of Sandakan.
Ten Indonesian sailors on a tugboat laden with coal were abducted sailing from Malaysia to the southern Philippines in late March. Last week, four Malaysians were kidnapped off Borneo island, with the Abu Sayyaf the prime suspects.
US help
The United States lists the Abu Sayyaf as a “foreign terrorist organisation”. From 2002-2014 the US deployed Special Forces advisers to train and provide intelligence to Filipino troops, which led to the killing or arrest of many Abu Sayyaf leaders.
US assistance was scaled back after the Pentagon concluded the group, originally with about 1,000 fighters, had lost the ability to launch international attacks. The Philippine military believe about 300 gunmen, loosely organised into several sub-groups, remain.
Black flags
After the US military left, the threat took on a new dimension as several Abu Sayyaf units, along with other small armed groups in the area, pledged allegiance to Islamic State fighters who hold vast swathes of Iraq and Syria.
Philippine authorities and security analysts say the pledges are mere ploys to draw attention and potential funding from the Islamic State group. They say they the Abu Sayyaf is less interested in Islamic ideology than getting rich from kidnappings.
http://www.mb.com.ph/five-things-to-know-about-the-abu-sayyaf/
Here are five facts about the Abu Sayyaf, which is notorious for kidnappings-for-ransom:
Origins
The group is a radical offshoot of a Muslim separatist insurgency that has claimed more than 100,000 lives in the south of the mainly Catholic Asian nation since the 1970s.
It was established in the 1990s with funds from a relative of Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.
Although the Abu Sayyaf is believed to be made up of just a few hundred gunmen, it has defied a decade-long US-military campaign to destroy it and regularly kidnaps foreigners who venture near its sphere of influence.
Methods
Sallying forth in fast boats from bases in the Muslim-populated islands of Jolo and Basilan, the Abu Sayyaf snatches local and foreign victims and demands ransom payments for their freedom.
Hostages, many of them western tourists but also Christian missionaries, are hidden amongst sympathetic Muslim communities on Jolo or Basilan, about 950 kilometres (590 miles) from Manila. Victims are often murdered if ransoms are not paid.
Kidnapping spree
The group has abducted 22 foreigners and more than a dozen Filipinos since 2014. It ransomed off a German yachting couple, with millions of dollars believed to have been paid. It murdered two other victims, including a Malaysian tourist snatched from the Malaysian port of Sandakan.
Ten Indonesian sailors on a tugboat laden with coal were abducted sailing from Malaysia to the southern Philippines in late March. Last week, four Malaysians were kidnapped off Borneo island, with the Abu Sayyaf the prime suspects.
US help
The United States lists the Abu Sayyaf as a “foreign terrorist organisation”. From 2002-2014 the US deployed Special Forces advisers to train and provide intelligence to Filipino troops, which led to the killing or arrest of many Abu Sayyaf leaders.
US assistance was scaled back after the Pentagon concluded the group, originally with about 1,000 fighters, had lost the ability to launch international attacks. The Philippine military believe about 300 gunmen, loosely organised into several sub-groups, remain.
Black flags
After the US military left, the threat took on a new dimension as several Abu Sayyaf units, along with other small armed groups in the area, pledged allegiance to Islamic State fighters who hold vast swathes of Iraq and Syria.
Philippine authorities and security analysts say the pledges are mere ploys to draw attention and potential funding from the Islamic State group. They say they the Abu Sayyaf is less interested in Islamic ideology than getting rich from kidnappings.
http://www.mb.com.ph/five-things-to-know-about-the-abu-sayyaf/
