RP, Malaysian ships search for hostages
RP, Malaysian ships search for hostages
Reuters, Manila
Philippine and Malaysian navy ships searched on Tuesday for three
abducted crew members of a tugboat as suspicions grew that the
Abu Sayyaf group carried out the weekend attack.
Armed men in speed boats intercepted the boat off the
Malaysian state of Sabah on Sunday and took its Indonesian
captain and two Malaysian crew members hostage.
Philippine naval authorities said the hostages, Indonesian Sam
Walter and Malaysians Toh Chiem Tiong and Wong Sien Nung, were
initially taken to an island in Philippine waters off the Sabah
coast, close to the Tawi-tawi chain.
"We are scouring the waters off Cagayan de Tawi-tawi island
because we believed that the hostages were brought there based on
our intelligence analysis," said Geronimo Malabanan, a spokesman
for the Philippine Navy.
He said a Philippine warship with three minor vessels was
patrolling the area, while several Malaysian ships were searching
on the other side of the border.
"We are now receiving reports from the field that the group
who abducted the three were Abu Sayyaf members and the alleged
leader is a certain alias Lajid," he 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.
Analysts and diplomats believe the Philippines' Abu Sayyaf
group 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.
Separately, military authorities said an Abu Sayyaf member
involved in the abduction of three Americans and 17 Filipinos
from a beach resort in May 2001 was arrested on Tuesday.
Colonel Raymundo Ferrer, an army commander on southern Basilan
island, said Utoh Hapibin was caught as security forces continued
their search for prisoners, including 23 suspected Abu Sayyaf
members, who escaped from jail last Saturday.
Two more escaped prisoners were killed in gun battle on Monday
night, he said, leaving more than a dozen men still at large.
Eleven have been killed and 28 recaptured.
"We will not stop until we have accounted for all of them,"
William Gadayan, a local police chief, told reporters.