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Philippines: FBI Claims Schilling Founded His Own Group
by Kazi Mahmood for IslamOnline
KUALA LUMPUR, March 1 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - The United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has sent a four-man team to the Philippines after reports that American Jeffrey Schilling, a hostage held by the rag-tag separatist group Abu Sayyaf, has created his own group in Basilan Province.
Superintendent Angelito Casimiro, chief of the Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Task Force Mindanao Area 2, said Wednesday the move stemmed from an intelligence report showing that Schilling had formed his own Abu Sayyaf faction of 20 fully armed bandits. He reportedly has a camp along the boundary of Lantawan and Isabela towns.
Casimiro said the FBI team would be working hand-in-hand with Philippines intelligence and army officers to Schilling track down and assist in his arrest.
The United States said they wanted Schilling back to help them in their investigation into these allegations.
Authorities in Basilan scoured the area where Schilling's group was reportedly encamped but failed to find him or the group, leading intelligence officers to believe they still have strong support from the local Muslim Moro population.
Superintendent Ahmadul Pangambayan, Basilan Provincial Police Office director, refused to confirm the report. He said it was too premature to comment on the claim and that his staff was still gathering data and evidence to support the intelligence report.
"I already dispatched personnel to confirm this and they have yet to submit their latest report," Pangambayan said. He added that his command coordinated with the 104th Army Infantry Brigade to work hand-in-hand in verifying the report.
The Abu Sayyaf seized Schilling when he, and his Filipina live-in partner Ivy Osani, visited the bandits' camp on August 28 of last year in the hinterlands of Patikul town. Osani is a distant relative of Abu Sayyaf spokesman Abu Asmad Salayudi.
It is reported that prior to his visit to the camp, Schilling and Salayudi had been talking via two-way radio and reportedly discussed plans to purchase sophisticated equipment for the Abu Sayyaf.
The report further revealed that Schilling was supposed to return to the United States to buy night vision goggles and assorted weapons for the bandits.
On the other hand, the army says they have information that Muslim activists are regrouping into a stronger and bigger force, despite the military's claims that a massive offensive against them last year effectively reduced their size and strength.
Military officials acknowledged this week that members of the Abu Sayyaf had started to regroup into a stronger force.
Commanders Galib Andang, Radulan Sahiron and Mujib Susukan, consolidated their men, indicating the group was not insignificant.
The army cited a clash on Friday in which three soldiers were killed and 23 wounded, and another on Tuesday on the island of Jolo, the Abu Sayyaf's stronghold, in which four more soldiers were killed and eight wounded.
Lieutenant-Colonel Servando acknowledged that the military had not expected to encounter close to 300-armed men when the highly outnumbered soldiers assaulted a lair in the town of Patikul last Friday.
In Tuesday's incident, also in Patikul, about 300 individuals attacked a military patrol.
Three government militiamen were slain in a separate incident on Jolo Tuesday. Friday's failed assault by the military was intended to rescue the two Abu Sayyaf hostages, Schilling and Filipino Raymond Ullah.
The separatists took dozens of Filipinos and foreigners hostage in several incidents last year, freeing them in exchange for millions of dollars in ransom.
Gloating over Friday's unsuccessful military attack, Abu Sayyaf spokesman Abu Sabbaya said: "We might be small in number, but we are ready to die."
Acting defense secretary Eduardo Ermita played down the threat to national security posed by the group. "I don't think they are that alarming because they are just in the remote areas of Sulu and Basilan," he said.
"The situation is really under control by the armed forces and the national police. They are really nothing but a bandit group. They have no capacity to win in large encounters, face to face with the military."
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