Operation Enduring Freedom - Philippines

Operation Enduring Freedom - Philippines (OEF-P) or Operation Freedom Eagle is part of Operation Enduring Freedom and the U.S. Global War on Terrorism. About 600 U.S. military personnel are advising and assisting the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) in the Southern Philippines. In addition, the CIA has sent its elite paramilitary officers from their Special Activities Division to hunt down and kill or capture key terrorist leaders. This group had had the most success in combating and capturing Al-Qaddafi leaders and the leaders of associated groups like Abu Sayyaf. , , 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 communicate and sustain counterterrorism operations. U.S. and Philippine forces have also worked together under new Security Engagement Board framework - the primary mechanism for coordination 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 SOCPAC headed by Brig. General 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. Much of the mission (Balikatan 02-1) took place on the island of Basilan a stronghold of Abu Sayyaf. , , The United States has provided the Philippine government with advisors, equipment and financial support to counter Abu Sayyaf and Jemaah Islamiyah. In order to provide a legal basis for the presence of U.S. forces despite provisions in the 1987 Philippine constitution specifically banning the presence of foreign troops. Philippine president Gloria Arroyo invoked the 1951 Mutual Defense Treaty between the U.S. and the Philippines. , , The Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG) 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 a Pan-Islamic superstate across the Malay portion of Southwest 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 Burma). , , (Caption) , , Philippine Marine Private Damaranan rushes up a small ditch to engage role-playing enemy forces while Staff SGT. John Ross of the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit provides communication during amphibious landing training of Balikatan Exercise.