Jainal Antel Sali, Jr.
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Jainal Antel Sali, Jr. (born June 1, 1964 in Zamboanga City, Mindanao, Republic of the Philippines) is a well-educated and very religious spokesperson of the Filipino terrorist group Abu Sayyaf.
Sali is also known as The Engineer, and by other aliases "Abu Solaiman, Abu Solajman, Abu Sulaiman, Abu Sulayman, and Jainal Antal Sali, Jr." He is a citizen of the Philippines and speaks Tausug, Tagalog and Arabic, as well as English. His whereabouts are unknown, since Sali may travel to Saudi Arabia and Malaysia.
Sali was indicted in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia, for his alleged involvement in terrorist acts, including hostage kidnapping and murder, against United States nationals and other foreign nationals in and around the Republic of the Philippines.
For that indictment, on February 24, 2006, Jainal Antel Sali, Jr. was among six fugitives in the second and most recent group of indicted fugitives to be added to the FBI Most Wanted Terrorists list along with two fellow members of Abu Sayyaf. [1]
The United States government Rewards For Justice Program, United States Department of State is offering a 5 million United States dollar (250,000,000 Philippine pesos) reward for Sali's capture.
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[edit] Background on Zamboanga City birthplace
Jainal Antel Sali, Jr. was born in 1964 in Zamboanga City, currently one of the largest and richest, or 1st class, Philippine cities, located on the southwest tip of the Zamboanga Peninsula, across the Basilan Strait from the contentious island of Basilan. The peninsula is attached to the western edge of the large Islamic island of Mindanao, but it is governed separately from that Islamic territory, which is now (since 1996) governed as part of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM).
Being on the social or political division line, the neighboring Basilan island has seen some of the fiercest fighting between government troops and the Muslim separatist group Abu Sayyaf through the early 2000s.
When Sali was still a pre-teen, in the early 1970s, the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) was the main Muslim rebel group fighting in the Basilan region of the southern Philippines.
[edit] Abu Sayyaf Group under Abdurajik Janjalani
After the late 1980s, Abdurajik Abubakar Janjalani, returned home to Basilan from the Soviet war in Afghanistan to establish his own offshoot group in the southern Philippines, out of members of the extant MNLF.
By then, as a political solution in the southern Philippines, ARMM had been created, in 1989, when Sali was 25 years old.
On Basilan, Abdurajik Janjalani gathered radical members of the old MNLF in 1990, to found Abu Sayyaf Group. It was named after his own alias, which was Abu Sayyaf. MNLF had moderated into an established political party, which eventually became the ruling party of the ARMM, by its full institutionalization in 1996 on the southern Philippines island of Mindanao.
Meanwhile, Abu Sayyaf Group had started out on their own by 1991 under the leadership of the elder Janjalani brother, Abdurajik. By 1995 Abu Sayyaf had been active in large scale bombings and attacks in the Philippines, and also had become associated with Ramzi Yousef (of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, the 1994 Philippine Airlines Flight 434 bombing, and the foiled 1995 Operation Bojinka), and also with Jemaah Islamiyah (al-Qaeda's southeast Asia associated branch led by Hambali [2]).
On December 18, 1998 the founder Abdurajik Janjalani was killed in a firefight with the Philippine National Police on Basilan island. He is thought to have been about age 39 at the time of his death.
[edit] Abu Sayyaf Group under Khadaffy Janjalani
The younger Janjalani brother, 23 year-old Khadaffy Janjalani, then eventually took power and Abu Sayyaf began a new tactic, as they proceeded to take hostages.
The group's motive for kidnapping became more financial and less religious during the period of Khadaffy's leadership, according to locals in the areas associated with Abu Sayyaf. The hostage money is probably the method of financing of the group. [3]
Jainal Antel Sali, Jr., along with Khadaffy Janjalani, was indicted in the United States for his alleged involvement in terrorist acts, including hostage taking by Abu Sayyaf and murder, against United States nationals and other foreign nationals in and around the Republic of the Philippines.
Consequently on February 24, 2006, Sali and Janjalani were among six fugitives in the second and most recent group of indicted fugitives to be added to the FBI Most Wanted Terrorists list along with a third fellow member of Abu Sayyaf, Isnilon Totoni Hapilon.
[edit] References
- ^ FBI Updates Most Wanted Terrorists and Seeking Information – War on Terrorism Lists, FBI national Press Release, February 24, 2006
- ^ nbr.org (pdf)
- ^ Information on new tactics
