Operation Enduring Freedom – Philippines

Operation Enduring Freedom - Philippines
	Part of the War on Terrorism and Insurgency in the Philippines
	; Philippine and US soldiers
Date	January 15, 2002 - ongoing
Location	Mindanao, Philippines
Result	Conflict ongoing.
Belligerents
Philippines; United States; Australia	Moro Islamic Liberation Front; File:Flag of OIC.svg Moro National Liberation Front; al-Qaeda,; Jemaah Islamiyah,; Abu Sayyaf,; Rajah Solaiman Movement,; File:NPA.png New People's Army ; Libya (alleged support)[1]; North Korea (allegedly supplying Anti-government forces) Philippine Mafia (supporting rebels); Chinese Mafia (supplying NPA)
Commanders and leaders
Hermogenes Esperon Jr.,; Donald C. Wurster	Khadaffy Janjalani†,; File:NPA.png Jose Maria Sison; File:Flag of OIC.svg Nur Misuari,; Al Haj Murad Ebrahim
Strength
18,000 Filipinos; 2,000 Americans; less than 100 Australians	2,000 (ASG); 7,000 (NPA); 200-300 al-Qaeda
Casualties and losses
347 Filipino soldiers killed, 15 US soldiers killed; (1 killed in action)	625 killed, 145 captured

Operation Enduring Freedom - Philippines (OEF-P) is part of Operation Enduring Freedom and the U.S. Global War on Terrorism^[2]. About 500 U.S. military personnel are advising and assisting the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) in the Southern Philippines.

Special Operations Command-Pacific (SOCPAC) troops are the core of Operation Enduring Freedom – Philippines (OEF-P), an operation which supports the Government of the Republic of the Philippines counterterrorism efforts. With U.S. advice and training, the AFP and civilian authorities have improved their ability to coordinate and sustain counterterrorism operations. U.S. and Philippine forces have also worked together under the new Security Engagement Board framework – the primary mechanism for consultation and planning regarding non-traditional security threats – to complete humanitarian and civil assistance projects and improve living conditions in the southern Philippines. As a result of their combined efforts, support for terrorists has waned markedly.

Deployment first began January 2002 and involved more than 1,200 members of United States Special Operations Command, Pacific (SOCPAC), headed by Brig. Gen. Donald C. Wurster. SOCPAC's deployable joint task force HQ, Joint Task Force 510 (JTF 510), directed and carried out the operation.

The mission was to advise the Armed Forces of the Philippines in combating terrorism in the Philippines.^[3] Much of the mission (Exercise Balikatan 02-1) took place on the island of Basilan, a stronghold of Abu Sayyaf. The mission is not to be confused with Balikatan 02-2, which took place April 2002 and was purely a training exercise. It is estimated by the US Military that the number of Abu Sayyaf Group members on Basilan Island has decreased to approximately 80 from a prior high of 700 or more.^[4]

Within OEF-Philippines was another project called Operation Smiles, an extensive program to provide medical care for local civilians of Basilan where the fighting had occurred. Operation Smiles included personnel from the Philippine Government as well as the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), JTF 510 and non governmental organizations. Among the results of this operation was the creation of 14 schools, seven clinics, three hospitals and over 20 fresh water wells. From the beginning of the project it had provided care and assistance to an estimated 18,000 Filipinos.^[5]

In 2005 and 2006 renewed fighting between the government forces and Abu Sayyaf guerillas allied with the New People's Army (NPA) hit the south of the Philippines. At the end of 2006 the NPA is estimated to have 7,000 fighters while Abu Sayyaf has 2,000.

Combatants

Armed Forces of the Philippines

Elements of the Armed Forces of the Philippines are deployed in Mindanao to deal with Abu Sayyaf and Jemaah Islamiyah.

United States Armed Forces

The United States has provided the Philippine government with advisors, equipment and financial support to counter Abu Sayyaf and Jemaah Islamiyah.

Abu Sayyaf

The Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG) is deemed a "foreign terrorist organization" by the United States government. Specifically, it is an Islamist separatist group based in and around the southern islands of the Republic of the Philippines, primarily Jolo, Basilan, and Mindanao.

Since inception in the early 1990s, the group has carried out bombings, assassinations, kidnappings, and extortion in their fight for an independent Islamic state in western Mindanao and the Sulu Archipelago, with a claimed overarching goal of creating a Pan-Islamic superstate across the Malay portions of Southeast Asia, spanning, from east to west, the large island of Mindanao, the Sulu Archipelago (Basilan and Jolo islands), the large island of Borneo (Malaysia and Indonesia), the South China Sea, and the Malay Peninsula (Peninsular Malaysia, Thailand and Myanmar).

The name of the group is Arabic for Father (Abu) of the Sword (Sayyaf).

Jemaah Islamiyah

Jemaah Islamiyah is a militant Islamic terrorist organization dedicated to the establishment of a fundamentalist Islamic theocracy in Southeast Asia, in particular Indonesia, Singapore, Brunei, Malaysia, the south of Thailand and the Philippines.

Jemaah Islamiyah is thought to have killed hundreds of civilians and is suspected of having executed the Bali car bombing on October 12, 2002 in which suicide bombers killed 202 people, mostly Australian tourists, and wounded many in a nightclub. After this attack, the U.S. State Department designated Jemaah Islamiyah as a Foreign Terrorist Organization. Jemaah Islamiyah is also suspected of carrying out the Zamboanga bombings, the Rizal Day Bombings, the 2004 Jakarta embassy bombing and the 2005 Bali terrorist bombing.

Financial links between Jemaah Islamiyah and other terrorist groups, such as Abu Sayyaf and al-Qaeda, have been found to exist.^[6] Jemaah Islamiyah means "Islamic Group" and is often abbreviated JI.