Chronology of RP hostage crisis
Chronology of RP hostage crisis
MANILA (AFP): A chronology of the Abu Sayyaf hostage crisis in the southern Philippines this year following the group's latest abduction of at least 21 Filipinos and the beheading of four captives.
May 27: Abu Sayyaf gunmen raid the Dos Palmas resort off the western Philippine island of Palawan and seize 20 hostages, including three Americans -- missionary couple Martin and Gracia Burnham from Kansas and Peru-born Californian, Guillermo Sobero. President Gloria Arroyo rules out paying any ransom and unleashes the military against the kidnappers.
June 1: Clashes erupt between government troops and the kidnappers, who are seen in Tuburan town in Basilan island, some 480 kilometers (about 300 miles) from Palawan.
June 2: An Abu Sayyaf "suicide squad" takes over a hospital and church in Lamitan, the second largest town in Basilan, holding as many as 200 hostages. Four of the hostages from the Palawan resort escape.
June 3: Five more hostages are recovered alive as the Abu Sayyaf break out of a military cordon and flee the hospital, taking four hospital staff as human shields. Lamitan officials later say they found the bodies of two of the Palawan hostages killed by the Abu Sayyaf.
June 7: Abu Sayyaf spokesman Abu Sabaya gives Manila a 72-hour deadline to bring in former Malaysian senator Sairin Karno and businessman Yusuf Hamdan as negotiators, failing which they would behead the Americans. They also asked military operations against them be suspended. Arroyo promptly rejects the demand.
June 11: Arroyo gives in to a rebel demand for two Malaysian negotiators, but refuses to call off the military offensive, after Abu Sabaya issues a final two-and-a-half hour deadline to behead the Americans. The gunmen seize 15 more Filipino captives in Lantawan town in a "diversionary" tactic.
June 12: Abu Sabaya claims his group has beheaded U.S. hostage Sobero and later peddles video footage of his supposed execution, but gets no takers.
June 16: A negotiator returns from the Abu Sayyaf hideout with two Filipino hostages. The freed captives say American Guillermo Sobero was separated from the group and believed to have been executed.
June 23: The headless bodies of two Filipino plantation workers are found outside the Basilan capital of Isabela. The bodies of two unidentified Filipinos are found in Tuburan.
June 29: President Arroyo announces she has formally asked the U.S. government to help track down the Abu Sayyaf with their surveillance expertise.
July 3: Two Filipino hostages are freed allegedly in exchange for a six million peso (US$115,384) ransom.
July 19: Police raid the home of a Muslim rebel chief-turned regional governor Nur Misuari and seize hundreds of rounds of ammunition and grenades amid suspicion his aide is selling weapons to the Abu Sayyaf.
Aug 3: Police say Abu Sayyaf guerrillas take at least 21 new Filipino hostages and behead four of them in a midnight raid a day earlier in Lamitan.