Remaining Indonesian hostage in Philippines "in good health"

Remaining Indonesian hostage in Philippines "in good health"

Two Indonesians freed from their Muslim extremist captors at the weekend have said the remaining hostage was in good health when they were separated from him, the military said on Tuesday.

The three Indonesians were taken hostage in March and two of them were rescued by troops on Sunday in the southern Philippines.

The freed men, Yamin Labuso and Erikson Hutagaol, were questioned by military debriefers while they were undergoing health checks in a hospital.

"They gave information that he is okay," regional military chief Lt. Gen. Alberto Braganza said, referring to remaining hostage Achmad Resmiadi.

They also confirmed they had been held by the notorious Philippine Muslim kidnapping group, the Abu Sayyaf, in the southern islands of Sulu, Braganza said.

He identified their captor as Murphy Ladja, adding that Resmiadi had been handed over to a different faction of the Abu Sayyaf.

The three Indonesians were seized in March 30 after their boat was attacked off Malaysia's Sabah region by a group calling itself the Jamiat al-Islamiah of Southern Mindanao.

Philippine officials said their captors were linked to the Abu Sayyaf, a Muslim extremist group alleged to have ties to the al- Qaeda network of terror mastermind Osama bin Laden.

A group of U.S.-trained Filipino special forces raided an Abu Sayyaf camp near the remote Sulu town of Indanan around dawn on Sunday, rescuing the two Indonesians. Soldiers continue to hunt for the last hostage.

The Abu Sayyaf have been kidnapping Christians and foreigners for ransom in the southern Philippines for more than a decade. -- AFP