7/2/14, 7:44 PM Abu Sayyaf Group (Philippines, Islamist separatists) - Council on Foreign Relations

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Abu Sayyaf Group (Philippines,
Islamist separatists)
Updated: May 27, 2009
This publication is now archived.
Introduction
How did Abu Sayyaf form?
Who organized Abu Sayyaf?
What is the status of the Abu Sayyaf leadership?
What kinds of terrorist acts does Abu Sayyaf commit?
Does Abu Sayyaf target Americans?
Where does Abu Sayyaf operate?
How big is Abu Sayyaf?
Introduction
Abu Sayyaf, whose name means "bearer of the sword" in Arabic, is a militant organization based in the
southern Philippines. It seeks a separate Islamic state for the country's Muslim minority. The U.S. State
Department designates Abu Sayyaf as a terrorist organization that boasts of ties to Osama bin Laden's
al-Qaeda network, as well as the Indonesian network of Jemaah Islamiyah.
How did Abu Sayyaf form?
In the early 1990s, Abu Sayyaf split from the Moro National Liberation Front, one of the two major
Muslim separatist movements in the southern Philippines, which were then trying to come to terms with
the central government in Manila. The group's first major attack came in 1991, when an Abu Sayyaf
grenade killed two American evangelists.
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Who organized Abu Sayyaf?
Its first leader was Abdurajak Janjalani, a Philippine Muslim who fought in the international Islamist
brigade in Afghanistan during the Soviet occupation. Mohammed Jamal Khalifa, a Saudi businessman
living in the Philippines, provided crucial financing and organizational support for Abu Sayyaf in its early
years. From 1998 to 2006 the group was led by Khadaffy Janjalani, who took over the leadership position
when his older brother Abdurajak was killed.
What is the status of the Abu Sayyaf leadership?
Abu Sayyaf suffered major losses of leadership in 2006 and 2007. In September 2006 Khadaffy Janjalani
was killed in a clash with troops on Jolo Island. In January 2007, U.S.-backed Philippine troops killed Abu
Sulaiman, a senior Abu Sayyaf commander and Janjalanis likely successor. Romeo Ricardo, chief of the
Philippine National Police Intelligence Group, said that the two leaders were the main contacts (AP) to
Middle Eastern donors who provided funding to the group and to Islamic militants in Indonesia. Radullan
Sahiron, a one-armed septuagenarian and senior leader in the group, was promoted to the top leadership
position in January 2007. However, it was unclear how active a role he would play in Abu Sayyafs
operations. In a June 2008 article, Zachary Abuza, a leading scholar on terrorism in Southeast Asia,
writes that Abu Sayyaf now lacks "any semblance of central leadership" (PDF).
What kinds of terrorist acts does Abu Sayyaf commit?
Historically, Abu Sayyaf has engaged in bombings, assassinations, kidnappings, and extortion. The
Philippine government currently in the middle of a military offensive against Abu Sayyaf rebels in the
south in efforts to quell the group's attacks against civilians.
Previous Abu Sayyaf attacks include:
A May 2001 incident when Abu Sayyaf kidnapped twenty people, including three Americans, at a
Philippine resort and demanded ransom payments. Abu Sayyaf beheaded one of the American
captives and held the other two Americans-a Christian missionary couple-hostage on Basilan Island
in the southern Philippines. In June 2002, U.S.-trained Philippine commandos tried to rescue the
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couple and a Filipino nurse being held with them. Two of the hostages were killed in the shoot-out,
and one, the American missionary Gracia Burnham, was freed;
In August 2002, Abu Sayyaf kidnapped six Filipino Jehovah's Witnesses and beheaded two of them.
In October 2002, Abu Sayyaf was blamed for a bomb explosion near a Philippine military base,
killing one U.S. serviceman.
In February 2005, Abu Sayyaf claimed responsibility for bombings in Manila and two other cities,
killing eight and wounding 150.
In November 2007, the group is suspected to have detonated a bomb that killed a Philippine
congressman and three of his staffers.
A plot to assassinate President Gloria Arroyo was discovered and foiled by Philippine security
officials in February 2008.
In January 2009, three Red Cross officials were kidnapped by Abu Sayyaf. Two of the three have
since been released.
According to a 2007 Congressional Research Service report (PDF), Abu Sayyaf reoriented its strategy
during the leadership of Khadaffy Janjalani. Janjalani deemphasized kidnapping for ransom and instead
emphasized developing capabilities for urban bombings. Since March 2004, the Philippine government
reportedly has uncovered several Abu Sayyaf plots to carry out bombings in Manila, and the report adds
that Jemaah Islamiyah had trained about sixty Abu Sayyaf members in bomb assembling and detonation
by mid-2005. But according to Abuza, Abu Sayyaf is low on funds, and has recently reverted back to
kidnapping for ransom.
Does Abu Sayyaf target Americans?
Yes, although most of its victims are Filipinos. In addition to the kidnapping in 2001 in which an
American was beheaded, Abu Sayyaf kidnapped an American Bible translator on a southern Philippine
island in 1993. In 2000, Abu Sayyaf captured an American Muslim visiting Jolo Island and demanded that
the United States release Sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman and Ramzi Yousef, who were jailed for their
involvement in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. We have been trying hard to get an American
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because they may think we are afraid of them, a spokesman for Abu Sayyaf said. We want to fight the
American people. Abu Sayyaf has also captured local businesspeople and Philippine schoolchildren, but
Western hostages make for larger ransom payments.
Where does Abu Sayyaf operate?
Abu Sayyaf mostly operates in the southern Philippines, specifically in the Sulu Archipelago and the
easternmost island of Mindanao. But the group has acted in other parts of the Philippines, and in 2000,
its members crossed the Sulu Sea to Malaysia for a kidnapping. Since 2001, Philippine military operations,
supported by the United States, have weakened Abu Sayyaf on Basilan Island and in the Sulu islands
southwest of Baslian.
How big is Abu Sayyaf?
Estimates vary. Counterterrorism efforts by the Philippine government seem to have pressured the group
in recent years: In 2007, the government killed 127 members of Abu Sayyaf and captured an additional
thirty-eight. But Abu Sayyaf has been improving ties with regional organizations, like Jemaah Islamiyah
and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, an Islamic separatist group dating from the 1970s located in the
southern Philippines. Thus, even though Abu Sayyaf's armed strength fell from an estimated one thousand
in 2002 to between two hundred and four hundred in 2006, the capabilities of the organization may be
growing. The 2008 U.S. State Department estimates the group to consist of between two hundered and
five hundred members.