Overview

The Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG) has been designated as a Foreign Terrorist Organization by the U.S. DOS since Oct. 8, 1997. ASG is the most violent of the terrorist groups operating in the Philippines and claims to promote an independent Islamic state in western Mindanao and the Sulu Archipelago. The group split from the much larger Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) in the early 1990s under the leadership of Abdurajak Abubakar Janjalani, who was killed in a clash with Philippine police in Dec. 1998. (Read more on state.gov)