Small Steps in the Campaign Against the Abu Sayyaf

By Zachary Abuza

There have been two recent successes in the long-standing fight against the Abu Sayyaf in the Sulu archipelago in the southern Philippines. On 10 April Philippine troops announced that they killed an Abu Sayyaf commander, Amilhamja Ajijul, who allegedly headed the organization's urban terrorism unit, responsible for the 2005 Valentines Day triple bombings. He was also implicated in an October 2002 bombing in Zamboanga that killed a US Special Forces soldier.

On 25 April Philippine soldiers arrested Sharie Amiruddin, who helped to execute the May 2001 raid on a diving resort on Palawan Island. Twenty tourists were kidnapped in the raid (including Martin and Gracia Burnham) and an American, Guillermo Sobero, was beheaded. Amiruddin has also been blamed for bomb attacks in three southern cities in 2002, though the evidence against him in these instances is more circumstantial. Police assert that he was planning to execute bombings in malls in Zamboanga during the recent Holy Week holiday. His arrest led authorities to a small Abu Sayyaf safe house and bomb cache.

While these arrests are important, they have not shed significantly more light on the ASG’s relationship to Jemaah Islamiyah or the larger Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF). Second, The second and more disturbing question has to do with the ASG’s resiliency, especially in the face of four years of concerted US military assistance to the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP). There are currently some 660 US forces in the southern Philippines providing support and training for the Philippine counterparts, who are still hampered by an appalling lack of leadership, resources and institutional frailties. US training, the holding of several “Balikbatan exercises” and the provision of tens of millions of dollars in military assistance in each of the past few years has not led to the group’s defeat. The ASG, if anything has grown into a greater terrorist threat today than it was in 2002. The Philippine constitution and political sensitivities have restricted a greater role for the US military.

There are an estimated 300 members of the ASG who are concentrated in the Islands of Jolo, Basilan and Tawi Tawi. This archipelago has been the primary conduit of members of Jemaah Islamiyah to get to and from Mindanao where they have received sanctuary and training in MILF camps.

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