The ASG, or, Abu Sayyaf Group's Urban Terrorist Group- known in shorthand as the "ASG-UTG," is yet another one of those externally defined organisations. What I mean by that is that the group has never referred to themselves by any name other than simply calling themselves "Abu Sayyaf." In fact, Abu Sayyaf was a name that was pasted onto a group then calling itself "Muhajidin Commando Freedom Fighters," usually shortened to "Muhajidin Commando Fighters," the armed wing of what was called- by its followers again, "The Islamic Movement," or in Arabic, "al Harakkatul al Islamiyya." Like so many things the group has been defined by the media who used the Islamic Movememt's founder, the late Abdurajak Abubakar Janjalani's nom de guerre- "Abu Sayyaf" (Father of the Bearer of the Sword), as the group's organisational name.
With the "Urban Terrorism Group," it was first coined by the AFP, or, Armed Forces of the Philippines, as a catchy label to differentiate a faction that had developed entirely within the borders of Zamboanga City on Mainland Mindanao from the older factions centered either in the movement's birthplace, Basilan Province, or else in Sulu Province, both of which are islands south of the mainland. The Philippine Media, the lumbering, unthinking animal that it usually is, simply consumed what it was fed and spit out the "Abu Sayyaf Urban Terrorism Group."
The faction began in Zamboanga City's Barangay Curuan (since re-named as Sibulao), where Andalul Ajijul, a Yakan Tribesman from Basilan raised his large family and attempted to make a living as a pedicab driver. In the late 1980s the Muslim areas of the city came under the growing influence of young charismatic preachers returning from the Middle East where most had been indoctrinated in the Saudi Wahhabi orthadoxy. Wahabbism, as it is known in English, was born in the 18th Century and seeks to strip Islam of what it sees as non-Islamic, synchrestic practices, such as Sufism, saint worshiping, faith healing, and so on. At the same time other youth were returning from Afghanistan where they had fought the Soviets with Wahhabi-centric factions who sought to impose the austere, stripped down version of Islam that eventually made itself felt with the subsequent Aghan Civil War in which the Wahhabists, united with Deobandists, a similar movement from 19th Century India, and a homegrown Afghan amalgamation now known as "Talibinism" sought to get overall control of the nation. Together they battled what Westerners call the "Nothern Alliance," less religious groups spearheaded by the Uzbek and Tajik minorities from the north of the nation. From that caustic environment young Filipinos had been molded into soldiers for a very austere form of Islam now generically known as "Islamo-fascism."
Coming under this new invigorating influence pedicab driver Andalul Ajijul enrolled his eldest son, Alihamja Ajijul, in a free madrassa, or Islamic elementary school, in this case funded by a Saudi charity known as the "IIRO," or, International Islamic Relief Organization, created by the late Muhammad Jamal Khalifa, a Saudi national who had had the great fortune to marry a sister of Osama bin Laden, and thereby gain entry into one of Saudi Arabia's richest families outside that nation's monarchy. Khalifa had been quite free with his money targeting Zamboanga City along with Marawi City in Lanao del Sur Province as two areas in which to indoctrinate Philippine young people into his ultra-extreme take on Wahhabism. In his worldview- shared by his brother in law Osama- the Saudi Monarchy were as loose as harlots. In other words, Wahhabism as practiced by the Saudi Government might as well be a Western New Age movement for all it was worth. Instead, the Taliban presented a proper orientation much more in line with Khalifa, Bin Laden, and like minded people. In that way of thinking, Outer Jihad, the physical, violent Jihad, was not only permissable- it was incumbent upon all men.
By 1991 Abdurajak Janjalani had begun the movement now known as Abu Sayyaf, while ostensibly still a member of the MNLF, with similar minded members that had begun coallescing around none other than the late Congressman Wahab Akbar, who was at the time merely a hellfire and brimstone MNLF preacher, fresy returned from the Middle East, just like Janjalani. The faction began to gel in 1988, the year Janjalani returned home to Basilan from the Middle East. By 1991 the group branched out on its own, taking particular aim at Christians whom Janjalani saw as trying to prey on weak minded Filipino Muslims via so called "charitable works." The nascent group primarily confined its activities to the region's largest population centre, Zamboanga City. The Western missionaries aboard the M/V Doulos, owned by the German-based Christian charity, "Gute Bucher fur Alles" became Abu Sayyaf's first target of note. An ocean going cruise ship refitted out as a floating library and medical clinic, the ship served as a front for the missionaries' own type of "Hearts and Minds" operations, combining their religious indoctrination with musical concerts and stage plays. These activities particularly irked Janjalani and his small but growing band of followers. The Philippines of the very early 1990s was very different than the computer-savvy nation it is today, where even the most remote settlements have access to the internet and cellular phone service. Filipinos then were much more innocent and naïve and so effective missionaries like those aboard the M/V Doulos found many ready takers, including Filipino-Muslims.
On August 11th, 1991, on the ship's last night docked in Zamboanga City, missionaries were putting on a play for a larger than usual audience. Amongst the attendees were members of Abu Sayyaf. As the sun set over the water an Abu Sayyaf member threw a fragmentation grenade up onto the stage. Two American missionaries were immediately killed, along with four Filipinos from Zamboanga City. The attackers simply walked away as the crowd slipped into pandemonium.
Likewise, Abu Sayyaf next took aim at the local Christian establishment by targeting Father Salvatore Carzedda, a Catholic missionary priest from the PIME Order. I have written a lot about PIME as of late, since the murder of Father Fausto Tentorio in Arakan, a municipality in North Cotabato Province, this past October of 2011. I have also posted the first in what will be a three part entry about the other PIME priests that have been targeted over the years before Father Tentorio. Indeed, Father Salvatore Carzedda had been the first PIME priest to be targeted. As the Italian born cleric left an inter-faith organisation he had co-founded to bring Muslims and Christians together, he was driving in a minivan, approaching the PIME Mindanao Headquarters, when a motorcycle with two men riding tandem pulled abreast and shot him to death. The minivan careened off the road and into a concrete road divider...Abu Sayyaf had suceeded in becoming an international force to be reckoned with.
These incidents garnered domestic as well as international attention and inspired people such as Andalul Ajijul, and more importantly for this entry, his eldest son Alihamja. By the mid-1990s Alihamja Ajijul was on the cusp of manhood and so he joined Janjalani's group, byb then almost universally known as "Abu Sayyaf." At that point the group had just gained hundreds of new followers on Jolo Island, in Sulu Province, with the large organisation of the late Ghalib Andang, much better known by the unforgettable moniker, "Kumander Robot." Janjalani had fled south to Jolo at the behest of Andang, after the AFP had captured Janjalani's main camp, "al Madina al Mujahidin," or, "The City of Holy Fighters." Located in Upper Kapayawan, an upland barangay of Basilan's capital, Isabela City, the AFP had managed to overrun it in May 15th, 1993, after a heavy week of fighting using all four branches of the Military. "Camp Madina" as it is popularly known, had but little more than a year of existence and yet it turned out several dozen extremely well trained guerilla leaders. Yet the camp was now history. In doing this the AFP relegated Abu Sayyaf to guerilla status but an un-intended result was the group splitting up, though still nominally controlled by Janjalani and his "Shura," or "Council," there were now cells in several places- including Mainland Mindanao. From Lake Sebu in South Cotabato Province in the south, all the way to Marawi City in Lanao del Sur Province in the north and all places in between, Abu Sayyaf had become impossible to eradicate.
One place on the mainland that had always been within its sphere had been the aforementioned Zamboanga City. There Andalul Ajijul gladly gave his blessing as his eldest son, Alihamja Ajijul heard the call to Jihad and answered loudly. Journeying to Basilan, 18 kilometers across the water from Zamboanga City, Alihamja was fully trained in Abu Sayyaf's even larger camp located atop a nearly 700 meter high promontory in the interior jungle, named Puno Mohaji, in back of the municipality of Sumisip. Later christened "Camp Abdurajak" after founder Abdurajak Janjalani, the camp was covered with an impenetrable cloud canopy of virgin tain forest abd on three sides by sheer cliff faces that were practically impossible to scale. This much more secure camp would serve as the Abu Sayyaf Headquarters on Basilan until it too fell in May of 2000. For the interim however it trained nearly two thousand Abu Sayyaf guerillas trained by members who would later go on to form and lead all the various Abu Sayyaf factions. It was there in Sumisip that Abu Sayyaf continued building a working relationship with a wide range of former and current BIAF, or, Bangsamoro Islamic Armed Forces guerillas. The BIAF of course is the armed wing of the MILF, and so despite the academic rigamorole there is an undeniable close working relationship between much of the MILF/BIAF and the Abu Sayyaf. Among the many instructors that taught Alijamsa and other new recruits was a local resident from Sumisip's Barangay Cambug, Ustadz Hadji Asnawi Hassan "Laksaw" Addan Salah, popularly known as "Kumander Dan Laksaw Asnawi." As his training advanced Alijamsa became closer to Laksaw and the instructor ended up singling Alijamsa out for extended, specialised training centering upon IED Construction and Application. For the un-initiated, IED stands for "Improvised Explosive Device," though the word "Bomb" rolls much more easily off one's tongue.
In this phase of training Alijamsa was taught by men who themselves been trained in the Middle East and who dealt with simple but effective forms relying on singnal phase variance to close the circuit and thereby deronate the device. Many devices could be used, remote television controls, remote garage door openers, electronic doorbells, and of course- cellular telephones, which ended up becoming the tool of choice in the Southern Philippines. Not showing very much creativity, thereby creating a distinct Abu Suyyaf device signature, Abu Sayyaf bomb makers inevitably utilise Nokia 8910 model phones, though in a pinch, many other models would do.
In 1998 founder, leader, and chief ideologue Abdurajak Ababakar Janjalani was gunned down in a firefight with the PNP. A detachment from the PNP SAF, or, Special Action Force (the PNP Special Forces) ran across Janjalani and roughly 20 of his guerillas as the police began a foot patrol on October 2nd, 1998, in the municipality of Lamitan (now Lamitan City). The patrol, led by Chief Inspector Reynaldo "Rey" Romo, ended with Romo being shot to death, as was one of his subordinates, Police Officer Second Class (PO2) David Magnaye, and losing two other officers whose bodies took days to find while authorities concentrated on the safe recovery and extrication of three wounded SAF officers.
The death of Janjalani, Abu Sayyaf's unchallenged leader at that point, threatened to split apart Abu Sayyaf which like so many small organisations had effectively become a cult of personality. While some members thought to seize what was essentially unfathomable opportunity and branch out on their own, most got ready to move south and join Andang's group on Jolo, finding security in numbers. Alijamsa though, had a novel approach. Having reached the point where he was ready to swim on his own and not so willing to move south to unfamiliar terrain and culture in Jolo, Alijamsa Ajijul instead moved back to his hometwon Zamboanga City. There he drew a small but tightknit group around him, including his brother, Abdullah Ajijul, and began making plans to continue in much the same way. The group's determination ebbed and waned however, only becoming steadfast in the wake of 9/11 and the attacks on America's World Trade Center towers and the simultaneous assault on the US Military Headquarters, the Pentagon. This rash of attacks had a direct result on the US-Philippine relationship in that then-President Gloria Arroyo whored herself and her nation for a nice slice of the American largesse that was about to be handed out under the guise of "Anti Terrorism Funds." Of course Abu Sayyaf's undeniable-albeit entirely unofficial relationship with Bin Laden's "al Qadah" organisation was more than enough reason to start bouncing Dollar Bills off of the heads of the loads of more than willing Philippine authorities. That Abu Sayyaf had snatched three American citizens in its most recent mass kidnapping at the "Dos Palmas Resort" in the municipality of Puerto Princessa, in Palawan Province, served as proof positive for the gads and gads of fence sitters who opted to take a "look and see" approach.
Though recognising early on that KFR, or Kidnapping for Ransom, was a valid form of fund raisin, Alijamsa Ajijul wanted to stay on the theological straight and narrow. Trained in IED construction, emplacement, and detonation he directed his small group numbering only five men including himself and his younger brother Abdullah, to remain focused on Janjalani's core message of Outer Jihad. Although the group had a hand in many Zamboanga City IEDs, it wasn't until a so called "Suicide Bombing" in October of 2002 that the group finally gained international recognitition on its own.
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To be concluded in "Part 2" of thus four part series.
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