ZAMBOANGA CITY, 17 August 2007 — Saying the “battle lines are clearly drawn,” Armed Forces of the Philippines chief of staff Gen. Hermogenes Esperon Jr. said the military is poised to “hit” the Abu Sayyaf in Sulu.

In a show of defiance, the militant group announced that it was posting a video in the Internet and called on fellow jihadists for support.

Esperon said army chief Lt. Gen. Romeo Tolentino has been talking with the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) asking the rebel group to contain its members to a single area to separate them from the Abu Sayyaf and other “lawless elements.”

“It is very clear that we have distinguished between the Abu Sayyaf and lawless elements...We have distinguished them from the MNLF. Now, the battle lines are clearly drawn,” Esperon told reporters in Camp Aguinaldo.

Asked if segregating the MNLF from the extremists sets the stage for military offensives, Esperon said: “Yes, not really a full offensive, but we can call them pinpoint intelligence-driven operations. (Troops will) hit, raid their lairs,” he said.

Esperon refused to say where in Sulu the MNLF would stay while the military operates against the extremists. He said the location would be finalized by Sunday.

“If they stay in that place, that means they are MNLF (members). If they get out, they are lawless (elements) or Abu Sayyaf. If we have those mechanisms on the ground, it is easier to conduct the operations,” he said.

The military is running after a 120-strong group of Abu Sayyaf and what it calls rogue MNLF fighters who engaged government troops four times last week. in Sulu.

The encounters left 27 soldiers and 32 Abu Sayyaf members killed and dozens more wounded.

Esperon said troops were verifying reports that Dulmatin, a Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) militant wanted for the 2002 Bali bombings, and Abu Sayyaf commander Gumbahali Jumdail alias Doctor Abu, had been wounded in one of the engagements, a July 9 firefight in Maimbung town.

Call to Jihad

Unfazed by the imminent military offensive, the Abu Sayyaf said it has prepared a one-hour and two-minute video titled “The Filipino Lions are Coming” featuring speeches from the group’s leadership and footage of its mujahedeen training, according to the website of the SITE Intelligence Group.

“Our only goal is to try to establish an Islamic state. We understand that establishing a Muslim State is not limited to Mindanao... We do not have any choice but to start with Mindanao. If we succeed, we will move to Visayas, then to Besoon, Allah willing, until we reach Al-Quds (Jerusalem),” the video was quoted as saying.

Visayas refers to the central Philippines, once a raiding target of Muslim warriors from the south during the Spanish colonial rule.

In the early 20th Century, tens of thousands of Visayans led a wave of migrants to Mindanao under a government program that opened the main southern island’s largely uninhabited lands to settlers.

The migrations were said to have uprooted Mindanao’s Muslims from their lands, an issue that the Abu Sayyaf and other Muslim secessionist groups- the MNLF and Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) hope to settle.

According to SITE Intelligence Group, the Abu Sayyaf video is advertised on jihadist forums as the first to be distributed within the Internet community.

“Two if its former leaders, founder Abdul Raziq Abubakar Janjalani AKA Abu Sayyaf, and Khadaffy Janjalani, each appear in archived footage urging Muslims to contribute support, both financial and material, to the Mujahidin in Abu Sayyaf. The mission of the group is patterned after Al-Qaeda and other Salafist movements, seeking the creation of a pan-Islam state, and as stated by Abdul Raziq Janjalani,” it said.

The presentation provides the background of Abu Sayyaf, both captions and Abdul Raziq Janjalani, setting it as distinct from other movements in the Philippines, namely the MNLF and MILF.

Janjalani explained that despite negative propaganda of the Philippine government, Abu Sayyaf group does not commit militant acts for personal or political gain, but does so only in the name of Islam and jihad. “To this end, he tells of the conditions in which the mujahedeen live, lacking ammunition, armaments, and medicine, and moreover, unable to record such messages and deliver them on account of the Philippine government.”

“A message from the producers of the video at its conclusion reiterates the call for financial support, but also urges prayers, and spreading the material of Abu Sayyaf group and inciting for their cause within the jihadist community and elsewhere,” SITE said.

Photographs of Abubakar and Khadaffy Janjalani and Abu Sayyaf members training in what appeared a jungle location were also posted on the SITE Intelligence website and can be accessed at http://siteintelligence.org.

It was unknown when the video was taken, but Abubakar Janjalani was killed in a firefight with policemen in Basilan island in 1998, while Khadaffy Janjalani died last year in a clash with US-backed Filipino soldiers in Jolo island. Both their bodies had been recovered and identified by US and Philippine forensic experts. (With a report from Inquirer News Service)