Philippine military rules out imminent terrorist threat

The Philippine military said Sunday that there is no imminent terrorist threat in the Philippines, after the United States issued a global travel alert due to potential attacks by the Al Qaeda terrorist group. "Locally, we have not monitored threats as high as that from Al Qaeda," Domingo Tutaan, spokesman for the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), said on Sunday. Nevertheless, Tutaan said military units will be on alert to preclude any possible threat. Dozens of Jemaah Islamiyan (JI) operatives are believed in the Philippines. Most of these JI men are harbored in Western Mindanao, southern Philippines, by the local Abu Sayyaf terrorist group. JI operatives are training Abu Sayyaf men on the use of explosives, Tutaan said. The 380-strong Abu Sayyaf group (ASG), founded in the early 1990s, is a violent Muslim terrorist group operating in the southern Philippines. The ASG engages in kidnappings for ransom, bombings, beheadings, assassinations, and extortion.