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...local rebel leader in particular - known as Commander Bravo - has a reputation for defying MILF leadership to carry out daring, bloody military strikes. In 2003, during the last major flare-up of violence in the area, Bravo's soldiers robbed and murdered at least 16 civilians. In interviews, Bravo said he staged the attack in order to put pressure on the government to negotiate. In 2007, the insurgent leader threatened to attack government offices in the region after the MILF invited government personnel in to investigate the killing of 14 Philippine marines, 10 of whom were beheaded, allegedly by fighters...
...people have been killed in the southern Philippines as Islamic separatists have battled government troops for control of parts of Mindanao. But this week's bloody events have pushed the region closer than ever to all-out war. On Aug. 20, the Philippine government ordered police commandos into the area with orders to kill insurgents. The government has also reportedly sent a shipment of weapons to local militias. General Alexander Yano, head of the country's armed forces, called the insurgent attacks a "virtual declaration of war," while President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo ordered government troops to defend "every inch...
...boundaries for an autonomous Muslim homeland, and, hopefully, dampened the insurgency. Yet, as has happened so often before in Mindanao, the center did not hold. After a challenge by Christian leaders in the minority-Muslim region who objected to the inclusion of some villages in the proposed Muslim area, the Philippines Supreme Court halted signing of the agreement...
...than a week after the court's decision, MILF insurgents attacked 15 towns on Aug. 11 in Mindanao's North Cotabato province, killing at least nine people. Around 130,000 people were displaced by the North Cotabato violence, according the World Food Program, which is supplying refugees in the area. Fighting soon spread to neighboring areas, driven, says Lingga, by frustration with the political deadlock in peace negotiations...
...longer. Afghanistan, which was the center of extremist pilgrimage when it was ruled by the Taliban, has retaken that position, according to European intelligence sources. "The degree to which Islamist extremists around the world have dropped their previous obsession with Iraq and now focus on the Afghan-Pakistan area has been astounding," says one French counter-terrorism official. "No one recruiting for or seeking to join jihadist fighting in Europe are trying to get to Iraq: it's all Afghanistan now," he reports "No one raising money for jihad is directing funds to Iraq, either. The Afghan-Pakistan region...