Manila - The beheading of a kidnap victim is the latest proof that a small number of Islamic militants in the Philippines are defying a sustained US-backed military campaign to extinguish them, observers say.
The grisly development this week came just ahead of US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's visit to the Southeast Asian nation, throwing the spotlight on joint efforts by Filipino and American forces to crush the Abu Sayyaf.
"The Abu Sayyaf are still well-entrenched in the jungle. They are capable of mounting terrorist attacks," said Rommel Banlaoi, executive director of the Philippine Institute for Political Violence and Terrorism Research think-tank.
Continues Below ↓
"They have funds to buy bomb ingredients and train potential bombers."
The Abu Sayyaf was founded in the 1990s with seed money from Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda-network to fight for an independent Muslim state in the south of the mainly Catholic nation, analysts say.
The militants, who have never numbered more than 1 000, operate in remote and often lawless islands of the southern Philippines, resorting to kidnappings for ransom and other crimes to raise funds.
US Special Forces advisers first arrived in the volatile southern Philippines to train and equip the Filipino military to combat the Abu Sayyaf in 2001.
It was part of then US president George Bush's so-called "war on terror", and the jungles of Basilan and Jolo islands were seen as an important part of the Southeast Asian theatre.
Only a few hundred US troops have been in the south at any time, according to the Philippine military, and they have been active in building infrastructure as part of a development push alongside the training.
Philippine authorities say the Abu Sayyaf's numbers have fallen from about 1 000 eight years ago to 300-400 now, thanks to the military campaign.
Continues...
|
StumbleUpon
Reddit
Digg
Delicious
Newsvine
Facebook
muti
Twitter
