British Troops Being Briefed on Moro Islamic Liberation Front

The Moro Islamic Liberation Front is a terrorist group operating in Indonesia, with training camps in the Phillipines. I can't find much about their recent activity other than in this article from Reuters

Reuters 2 May 2008

Although they are said to have links with Al Queda and are believed to train terrorists from other groups at their camps, I can find nothing on them attacking western targets.

Why then are British troops being brief on them? I'm certainly no military expert but I don't think that we have any troops in Indonesia, nor any reason to interfere in that part of the world.

Can anyone shed any light on this?

Even the squaddie this information came from is completely non-plussed!

Cheers

A bit more info on the Moro Islamic Liberation Front.

The following article gives background to the dispute between this group and the Philippine Goverment. Their aim is to establish a separate homeland for the Moro people living under Islamic law. This is a longstanding campaign dating back to 1978.

www.usip.org...

The following report gives information on the current situation and the presence of the International Monitoring Team (led by Malaysia).

www.abs-cbnnews.com...

I can find nothing about this group to indicate that they are extending or have extended their activities beyond the Philippines, nor anything which might indicate a threat to the western world, other than the possibility that other terrorist groups "may" have sent their members to them for training.

And yet, our troops, who are generally kept in the dark and are given information strictly on a "need to know" basis, are currently being briefed on them.

I find this bizare to say the least.