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| Southeast Asia |
| Phillipine armed forces eliminated Abu Sayyaf HVT, group's future unclear |
| 2010-03-02 |
| Philippine media is reporting that on February 21, leading Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG) commander Albader Parad was killed along with five other fighters on the island of Jolo, in the volatile Sulu archipelago, in a confrontation with Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) 2nd an 3rd Marine Battalions (Mindanao Examiner, February 23; The Manila Times, February 22). In what Filipino commanders described as both a moral booster to the AFP and a severe blow to the ASG's hierarchy, the death of Parad came after a fierce gun battle with the militants in Jolo's remote Karawan district where ASG men had taken shelter. Parad had arisen in the militant scene with a logistically astonishing raid and mass kidnapping on a Sipadan Island dive resort off the coast of Malaysia's Sabah state (Borneo) on April 23, 2000 in which 21 tourists and resort employees were ferried off to Jolo in the group's first act of cross-border terrorism. Albader Parad was one of Manila's most wanted men and the quintessence of a high-value target before his death. His most infamous operation was the kidnapping of three International Committee of the Red Cross volunteers in north Jolo's Patikul region on January 15, 2009 (Philippine Inquirer, January 17, 2009). Parad was on the United States radar in connection with the killings of two U.S. soldiers by an improvised explosive device on the island last fall (Philippine Inquirer, September 30, 2009). The AFP commander of Western Mindanao, Lt. General Benjamin Dolorfino, believes the death of another major ASG figure puts the group's future on shaky ground and that "there are no other young leaders emerging" to take over where Parad so violently left off (Philippine Inquirer, February 23). Dolorfino touted the elimination of Parad as a concurrent victory for the Philippine military's American sponsors, telling the press that the U.S. had offered a multimillion dollar bounty for Parad but a U.S. embassy spokeswoman in Manila was quick to put down the claim, stating "reports of a $5 million reward being offered by the US are incorrect (ABS-CBN News, February 22)." With Albader Parad now gone from the scene, the future of Abu Sayyaf remains unclear. A number of other high-level ASG leaders who were with Parad on the Sipadan dive resort raid have recently been captured which may affect both the morale of existing militants in the organization as well as disincentivize further potential recruits. In the last several months Abu Sayyaf leaders, including Abdul Basit Usman in Pakistan (see Militant Leadership Monitor, January 2010), are being captured and killed in significant numbers in proportion to the group's current size, which the Philippine press estimates to be about 400 guerrillas. The ASG had been making a sizeable resurgence in Jolo under the former leadership of Albader Parad but the AFP may have strongly tamped down that perceived surge in a series of recent victories (Al Jazeera, February 21). If the past is to be a guide, Parad's absence from Abu Sayyaf is not necessarily a harbinger of the group's imminent end. The killing of ASG's amir, Khaddafy Janjalani in 2006 did little to stop the militants from terrorizing their theater of activity. Philippine military commanders on the ground in the south appear more optimistic than Manila's political elites. "We consider the leaders the center of gravity. Once we have neutralized the leaders, we expect that the group (ASG) will crumble" Dolorfino told Philippine television (ABS-CBN News, February 22). Much, much more at the link. Link points to Georgia Daily article on armored trains... |
| Posted by:gromky |