US to disband joint Philippine anti-terror task force, its job largely done
After more than a decade of helping fight al-Qaeda-linked militants, the US is disbanding an anti-terror unit of hundreds of elite troops in the southern Philippines where armed groups such as Abu Sayyaf have largely been crippled.
After more than a decade of helping fight al-Qaeda-linked militants, the US is disbanding an anti-terror unit of hundreds of elite troops in the southern Philippines where armed groups such as Abu Sayyaf have largely been crippled.
But special forces from the US Pacific Command will remain after the deactivation of the Joint Special Operations Task Force Philippines to ensure al-Qaeda offshoots such as Abu Sayyaf and the Indonesia-based Jemaah Islamiah militant network do not regain lost ground.
The remaining terrorists "have largely devolved into disorganised groups resorting to criminal undertakings to sustain their activities".
He said that success had led US military planners and their Philippine counterparts "to begin working on a transition plan where the JSOTF-P as a task force will no longer exist".
He said there were 320 American military personnel left in the south, down from 600.