OVERVIEW

Abu Sayyaf Group flag

The Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG) is a Philippines-based Islamic extremist organization with historical links to al-Qa‘ida. The group formed in 1991 when it splintered from the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, an insurgent group that made peace with the Philippine Government in 2014. ASG’s stated goal is to establish an independent Islamic state, governed by Islamic law, in the Muslim-majority provinces of the southern Philippines. Since the early 2000s, ASG has intermittently engaged in criminal activities, including several high-profile kidnap-for-ransom incidents, alongside pursuit of its extremist objectives. In 2014 an ASG faction pledged allegiance to ISIS and later formed ISIS’s Philippines branch in 2016.

OPERATING AREAS
Based in the southern Philippines, primarily in western Mindanao and the Sulu Archipelago.

MEMBERS
Fewer than 400

TACTICS AND TARGETS
ASG engages in bombings, assassinations, extortion, and kidnap-for-ransom operations that have occasionally targeted US citizens. The group focuses most of its attacks on Philippine military targets and civilian defense forces, as well as Christians and other civilians who the group perceives are working against its interests or oppose its interpretation of Islamic law.

FOREIGN TERRORIST GROUP DESIGNATION
The US State Department designated Abu Sayyaf Group as a foreign terrorist organization in October 1997.

KEY LEADERS

NOTABLE ATTACKS