JOLO ISLAND (Phillipines): It was swift and it was deadly -- a night-time assault on the rebel Abu Sayyaf Group cloaked in smothering jungle foliage on the restive southern Philippines island of Jolo.

“We got within 5 or 10 metres before they even knew we were there,” recounted Brigadier-General Juancho Sabban, after a briefing over coffee and bananas on the edge of the former Abu Sayyaf Group encampment.

When it was over, half a dozen ASG militants were dead and the rest had scattered, leaving behind a trove of food, medicine and supplies, ready-made bombs and bomb-making material. There was one army casualty.

Sabban said night-vision goggles and training provided by the US military has turned the tables on Abu Sayyaf, who have long used their knowledge of the terrain in a campaign of kidnapping, murder and extortion beyond the reach of the security forces.“They may own the jungle, but now we own the night,” he said, surrounded by a detail of marines. US Special Forces, advisers to the Armed Force of the Philippines, or AFP, kept watch nearby.

American officials say any success on the ground against Abu Sayyaf and other militants in the predominantly-Muslim southern Philippines is not about isolated tactical victories. “You win the war on terrorism not on the battlefield,” said US Ambassador Kristie Kenney, back in Manila. “You win the war when the population says we are not particularly interested in being part of that.”

Local activists, including the MILF, wonder whether political empowerment will ever accompany security and economic gains.—Reuters