Armed men take RI sailor hostage from boat<\/p>\n
Reuters, Manila<\/p>\n
Armed men in speed boats intercepted a tugboat towing a barge off
\nthe Malaysian state of Sabah, taking its Indonesian captain and
\ntwo Malaysian crew members hostage, the Philippine navy said on
\nMonday.<\/p>\n
Feliciano Angue, a navy captain in the southern Philippine
\nregion of Mindanao, said the hostages were initially taken to an
\nisland in Philippine waters off the Sabah coast, close to the
\nTawi-Tawi chain, before being moved elsewhere in Philippine
\nterritory.<\/p>\n
Angue said the men were part of a Philippine kidnap group
\nknown to the military but declined to say whether they were part
\nof the Abu Sayyaf militant group, which operates in the area.<\/p>\n
"It appeared that an armed group from the Philippines was
\nbehind this abduction," he said. "We are familiar with this
\ngroup, which has previous kidnapping records."<\/p>\n
Malaysian Defense Minister Najib Razak said Malaysian
\nauthorities had picked up distress signals but were unable to
\nhelp as the abduction took place in Philippine waters.<\/p>\n
"We received radio signals that they were being attacked by a
\ncertain group," Najib told a news conference.<\/p>\n
"We sent our team. Since it happened in the Philippines waters
\nwe couldn't do anything. We are searching for them but we can't
\nmove into the Philippines territory."<\/p>\n
The Philippine navy initially said the three hostages were the
\nIndonesian crew of a fishing boat.<\/p>\n
Angue told television on Monday that a witness had seen the
\nhostages being led into a house on an island. The captives were
\nfrom a tugboat named Ocean 2, Angue said.<\/p>\n
Last October, gunmen kidnapped a group of five or six workers
\nfrom a beach resort in Sabah, the northern part of Borneo island.
\nThe Philippine military says it is still looking for them, and
\nbelieves they are being held near Tawi-Tawi.<\/p>\n
The area is close to the southern Philippine stronghold of the
\nAbu Sayyaf group, which became notorious for kidnapping tourists
\nin 2000 and 2001 from Malaysian resorts off the Sabah coast and
\nfrom a nearby Philippine island.<\/p>\n
Analysts and diplomats believe Abu Sayyaf was linked to Osama
\nbin Laden's al-Qaeda in the 1990s, but doubt the ties still exist
\nas the group has become more of a criminal gang.<\/p>\n
The government said last month that it had averted a major
\nterrorist strike on Manila by the Abu Sayyaf by arresting six
\nsuspected members and seizing a large amount of explosive.<\/p>",
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