Abu Sayyaf leader Khadafi Janjalani, second from left, with Philippine militants, July 2000.
(AP Photo/STR )

What is the Abu Sayyaf Group?
Abu Sayyaf (the phrase means “bearer of the sword” in Arabic) is a militant organization based in the southern Philippines seeking a separate Islamic state for the country's Muslim minority. The White House says Abu Sayyaf is a terrorist organization with ties to Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda network.
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What kinds of terrorist acts does Abu Sayyaf commit?
Bombings, assassinations, kidnappings, and extortion. In May 2001, Abu Sayyaf kidnapped 20 people, including three Americans, at a Philippine resort and demanded ransom payments. Abu Sayyaf beheaded one of the American captives and held the other two Americans—a Christian missionary couple—hostage on Basilan Island in the southern Philippines. In June 2002, U.S.-trained Philippine commandos tried to rescue the couple and a Filipino nurse being held with them. Two of the hostages were killed in the shootout, and one, the American missionary Gracia Burnham, was freed. In August 2002, Abu Sayyaf kidnapped six Filipino Jehovah’s Witnesses and beheaded two of them.

Does Abu Sayyaf target Americans?
Yes, although most of its victims are Filipinos. Abu Sayyaf kidnapped an American Bible translator on a southern Philippine island in 1993. In 2000, Abu Sayyaf captured an American Muslim visiting Jolo Island and demanded that the United States release Sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman and Ramzi Yousef, who were jailed for their involvement in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. “We have been trying hard to get an American because they may think we are afraid of them,” a spokesman for Abu Sayyaf said. “We want to fight the American people.” Abu Sayyaf has also captured local businesspeople and Philippine schoolchildren, but Western hostages make for larger ransom payments.

Where does Abu Sayyaf operate?
Mostly in the southern Philippines, where most of the country's Muslims live and where the group has its base. But Abu Sayyaf has acted in other parts of the Philippines, and in 2000, its members crossed the Sulu Sea to Malaysia for a kidnapping.

How big is Abu Sayyaf?
We don't know; estimates vary. It is thought to have a core of several hundred fighters, but the sizable ransom payments they've managed to get in recent years may have attracted more members.

How did Abu Sayyaf form?
Abu Sayyaf split from the Moro National Liberation Front, one of the two major Muslim separatist movements in the southern Philippines, which were then trying to come to terms with the central government in Manila. The group's first major attack came in 1991, when an Abu Sayyaf grenade killed two American evangelists.

Who organized Abu Sayyaf?
Its first leader was Abdurajak Janjalani, a Philippine Muslim who fought in the international Islamist brigade in Afghanistan during the Soviet occupation. Muhammad Jamal Khalifa, a Saudi businessman living in the Philippines, provided crucial financing and organizational support for Abu Sayyaf in its early years.