sharyl: fighting abu sayyaf? gen. sobejana: fighting abu sayyaf. sharyl: islamic separatists have been using violence to try to break away and establish an islamic state. gene yu: these guys are battle-hardened fighters or terrorists that have survived essentially the war going head to head with western military and special operations. scott: rome, one of the oldest cities in europe. but in this rr on terror, it has remained unscathed. so why so safe, so far? giampiero massolo was head of italian intelligence. to fight today's terrorists, they're using lessons learned combating another group -- the mafia. giampiero massolo: and this is something we learned eute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] sharyl: welcome to "full measure." i'm sharyl attkisson. it's hard to believe, but we are now 16 years into the global war on terror. today, there are some signs of success in the middle east against the islamic extremists known as isis. u.s. and coalition forces have retaken iraq's capital, mosul, from isis hands.

abu sayyaf still had kevin and her cousin. they could kill them any time they wanted. >> and i felt her dark place, just being a mother myself. and it was awful. >> and before long her terror deepened. when she learned her cousin got out, too. which meant that there in that awful place, her 14-year-old son no one left to protect him was all alone. >> i remember seeing that picture of her that was in the news. and she looked so sad. she looked so sad and helpless. >> this is gerfa. and here, even five years later the memory is brutal. we brought her back here to the philippines and asked her to tell us her story. the story that began at 2:00 in the morning, at the end of a happy, family reunion, on a beach, just about like this one. >> it does take you back. you know, you can hear the water, the waves. you can feel the wind. you see the evening sky. the stars. >> it was a beautiful thing. >> oh, it was a beautiful morning. >> suddenly i saw from the left side two men running really fast, like, on the sand. with some kind of rif

sharyl: fighting abu sayyaf? gen. sobejana: fighting abu sayyaf.using violence to try to break away and establish an islamic state. gene yu: these guys are battle-hardened fighters or terrorists that have survived essentially the war going head to head with western military and special operations. scott: rome, one of the oldest cities in europe. but in this rr