Armed men take RI sailor hostage from boat

Armed men take RI sailor hostage from boat

Reuters, Manila

Armed men in speed boats intercepted a tugboat towing a barge off
the Malaysian state of Sabah, taking its Indonesian captain and
two Malaysian crew members hostage, the Philippine navy said on
Monday.

Feliciano Angue, a navy captain in the southern Philippine
region of Mindanao, said the hostages were initially taken to an
island in Philippine waters off the Sabah coast, close to the
Tawi-Tawi chain, before being moved elsewhere in Philippine
territory.

Angue said the men were part of a Philippine kidnap group
known to the military but declined to say whether they were part
of the Abu Sayyaf militant group, which operates in the area.

"It appeared that an armed group from the Philippines was
behind this abduction," he said. "We are familiar with this
group, which has previous kidnapping records."

Malaysian Defense Minister Najib Razak said Malaysian
authorities had picked up distress signals but were unable to
help as the abduction took place in Philippine waters.

"We received radio signals that they were being attacked by a
certain group," Najib told a news conference.

"We sent our team. Since it happened in the Philippines waters
we couldn't do anything. We are searching for them but we can't
move into the Philippines territory."

The Philippine navy initially said the three hostages were the
Indonesian crew of a fishing boat.

Angue told television on Monday that a witness had seen the
hostages being led into a house on an island. The captives were
from a tugboat named Ocean 2, Angue said.

Last October, gunmen kidnapped a group of five or six workers
from a beach resort in Sabah, the northern part of Borneo island.
The Philippine military says it is still looking for them, and
believes they are being held near Tawi-Tawi.

The area is close to the southern Philippine stronghold of the
Abu Sayyaf group, which became notorious for kidnapping tourists
in 2000 and 2001 from Malaysian resorts off the Sabah coast and
from a nearby Philippine island.

Analysts and diplomats believe Abu Sayyaf was linked to Osama
bin Laden's al-Qaeda in the 1990s, but doubt the ties still exist
as the group has become more of a criminal gang.

The government said last month that it had averted a major
terrorist strike on Manila by the Abu Sayyaf by arresting six
suspected members and seizing a large amount of explosive.