Editing Abu Sayyaf (section)

===Abdurajak Abubakar Janjalani leadership (1989–1998)===
In the early 1990s, the MNLF moderated into governing the [[Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao]], becoming the ruling government in majority Muslim areas of Mindanao in 1996. When Abdurajak returned to Basilan in 1990, he gathered radical members of the old MNLF who wanted to resume armed struggle and in 1991 established the Abu Sayyaf.<ref name="TKBAbu" /> Janjalani was funded by a Saudi Islamist, [[Mohammed Jamal Khalifa]], who came to the Philippines in 1987 or 1988 and was head of the Philippine branch of the [[International Islamic Relief Organization]] foundation. A defector from Abu Sayyaf told Filipino authorities, "The IIRO was behind the construction of Mosques, school buildings, and other livelihood projects" but only "in areas penetrated, highly influenced and controlled by the Abu Sayyaf". According to the defector, "Only 10 to 30% of the foreign funding goes to the legitimate relief and livelihood projects and the rest go to terrorist operations".<ref name="abuza">{{Cite journal |last=Abuza |first=Zachary |date=2003 |title=Funding Terrorism in Southeast Asia: The Financial Network of Al Qaeda and Jemaah Islamiya |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/25798639 |journal=Contemporary Southeast Asia |volume=25 |issue=2 |pages=169–199 |jstor=25798639 |s2cid=153657097 |issn=0129-797X}}</ref><ref>
{{cite web|title=National Commission on Terrorist Attacks upon the United States|url=http://govinfo.library.unt.edu/911/archive/hearing3/9-11Commission_Hearing_2003-07-09.htm|access-date=June 19, 2012|date=July 9, 2003|quote=Mr. Gunaratna: Sir, Mohammad Jamal Khalifa&nbsp;... arrived in the Philippines in 1988 and he became the first director, the founding director, of the International Islamic Relief Organization of Saudi Arabia.}}</ref><ref name="TFSR-120">{{cite book|last1=Giraldo|first1=Jeanne K.|last2=Trinkunas|first2=Harold A.|title=Terrorism Financing and State Responses: A Comparative Perspective|publisher=Stanford University Press|page=120|url={{google books|plainurl=y |id=BOfC7vJOsdIC|page=120}}|access-date=May 13, 2015}}</ref><ref name="HC-MJK">{{cite web |last=Khalifa |first=Mohammed Jamal |title=Complete 911 Timeline. Mohammed Jamal Khalifa |url=http://www.historycommons.org/timeline.jsp?other_al-qaeda_operatives=complete_911_timeline_mohammed_jamal_khalifa&timeline=complete_911_timeline |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150518092750/http://www.historycommons.org/timeline.jsp?other_al-qaeda_operatives=complete_911_timeline_mohammed_jamal_khalifa&timeline=complete_911_timeline |archive-date=May 18, 2015 |website=History Commons}}</ref> Khalifa married a local woman, Alice "Jameelah" Yabo.<ref>{{cite book|last=Abuza|first=Zachary|title=Balik-Terrorism: The Return of the Abu Sayyaf|publisher=Strategic Studies Institute, US Army War College|location=Carlisle PA|isbn=978-1-58487-208-5|url=http://www.strategicstudiesinstitute.army.mil/pdffiles/pub625.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/http://www.strategicstudiesinstitute.army.mil/pdffiles/pub625.pdf |archive-date=2022-10-09 |url-status=dead|page=47|date=September 2005|access-date=June 19, 2012|quote=Based on IIRO documents at the PSEC, Khalifa was one of five incorporators who signed the documents of registration; another was Khalifa's wife, Alice 'Jameelah' Yabo.}}</ref>

By 1995, Abu Sayyaf was active in large-scale bombings and attacks. The first attack was the assault on the town of [[Ipil, Zamboanga Sibugay|Ipil]], [[Zamboanga del Sur]] in April 1995. This year marked the escape of 20-year-old Khadaffy Janjalani from [[Camp Crame]] in [[Manila]] along with another member named Jovenal Bruno. On December 18, 1998, Abdurajak was killed in a gun battle with the [[Philippine National Police]] in [[Basilan]].<ref name="TimeAsiaReturn" /> He was thought to have been about 39.<ref name="BBCWho" />

The death of Aburajak marked a turning point in Abu Sayyaf operations. The group shifted to kidnappings, murders, and robberies, under his younger brother Khadaffy. The [[Sulu Archipelago]] experienced some of the fiercest fights between government troops and Abu Sayyaf through the early 1990s. It was reported that Abu Sayyaf began expanding into neighboring [[Malaysia]] and [[Indonesia]] by that time.<ref name="PacCom" />