KL armed forces on high alert for RP kidnappers

KL armed forces on high alert for RP kidnappers

KUALA LUMPUR (AFP): Malaysian security forces in the eastern state of Sabah have been put on high alert to prevent a group of Filipino kidnappers holding 20 hostages from slipping into the country, officials said on Sunday.

A navy spokesman said they were informed early Sunday about the kidnapping of 20 people including three Americans from a resort on Palawan island in the western Philippines.

"We have been told about it and we have put our men on full alert ... they are now on the ground," he said, Bernama news agency reported. He declined to elaborate.

Palawan is about two hours' boat ride from Kudat on the northern tip of Sabah.

Sunday's pre-dawn attack on the Dos Palmas resort off Palawan island was believed staged by the notorious Abu Sayyaf guerrillas, who struck twice in Malaysia last year.

They fled with the 20 tourists and resort workers in a motor boat that was later found abandoned.

Philippine National Security Adviser Roilo Golez said that when last seen, the kidnappers and their hostages were close to the Malaysian sea border and Manila was in touch with Kuala Lumpur for possible help in intercepting them.

On April 23 last year Abu Sayyaf gunmen raided the Malaysian diving resort of Sipadan, off the Sabah coast, and fled across the sea border to their Jolo island stronghold with 10 Western tourists and 11 resort workers.

On Sept. 10 they raided Pandanan island near Sipadan and seized three Malaysians. All but one of the Sipadan and Pandanan hostages either escaped or were freed, some of them after the payment of millions of dollars in ransom to the bandits.

Malaysia has mounted a huge land, air and sea security operation on resort islands and in waters off Sabah since last year's abductions. It plans shortly to introduce designated sea lanes off the state to make it easier to check suspicious craft.