Two soldiers and six members of an Islamic militant group holding an Italian Red Cross hostage were killed in heavy fighting in the southern Philippines yesterday, the military said.
There was no immediate confirmation on the physical state of Eugenio Vagni, the 62-year-old Italian who was abducted by the Abu Sayyaf along with two other aid workers — who have since been released unharmed — nearly five months ago.
A marine combat patrol came upon about 150 heavily armed Abu Sayyaf members near the town of Indanan on southern Jolo island at dawn, the military said.
“A fierce firefight ensued and is still ongoing,” Navy spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Edgard Arevalo said.
Two soldiers and six militants were killed, and four soldiers were wounded, he said.
He said the Abu Sayyaf unit was led by Albader Parad and Abu Pula, two senior commanders of the group thought to be holding Vagni.
The Swiss and Philippine colleagues of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) staffer were released separately in April.
Philippine Interior Secretary Ronaldo Puno last week said Vagni was alive, but said that weeks in the harsh tropical jungle was taking its toll on the captive, who was known to be suffering from a hernia.
Puno had said that efforts to recover Vagni were being slowed by landmines planted by the Abu Sayyaf.
Foreign militants believed to be from the Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) regional extremist network were aiding the Abu Sayyaf kidnappers, making it more difficult for negotiators to resolve the crisis peacefully, Puno had said.
Arevalo yesterday said reports from the field indicated Indonesian JI member Umar Patek was helping the Abu Sayyaf.
Patek and compatriot Dulmatin are wanted for the 2002 bombings in Bali, Indonesia that killed more than 200 people, many of them tourists.
The Philippine military had reported that Dulmatin was killed in the southern Philippines last year, but Indonesian authorities later said forensic tests were inconclusive.
The US government has offered a US$1 million for the capture of Patek, and US$10 million for Dulmatin.
The Abu Sayyaf is a small group of Islamic rebels blamed for the worst militant attacks in the Philippines.
It once received funding from Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaeda network when it was first organized by young Afghan-trained firebrand Abdurajak Abubakar Janjalani, according to local and international intelligence and security groups.
His death in a clash with police in 1998 led to a power vacuum within the Abu Sayyaf, which has since specialized in kidnappings and bombings.
SPIRITUAL COUPLE: Martha Louise has said she can talk with angels, while her husband, Durek Verrett, claims that he communicates with a broad range of spirits Social media influencers, reality stars and TV personalities were among the guests as the Norwegian king’s eldest child, Princess Martha Louise, married a self-professed US shaman on Saturday in a wedding ceremony following three days of festivities. The 52-year-old Martha Louise and Durek Verrett, who claims to be a sixth-generation shaman from California, tied the knot in the picturesque small town of Geiranger, one of Norway’s major tourist attractions located on a fjord with stunning views. Following festivities that started on Thursday, the actual wedding ceremony took place in a large white tent set up on a lush lawn. Guests
Four days after last scanning in for work, a 60-year-old office worker in Arizona was found dead in a cubicle at her workplace, having never left the building during that time, authorities said. Denise Prudhomme, who worked at a Wells Fargo corporate office, was found dead in a third-floor cubicle on Aug. 20, Tempe police said. She had last scanned into the building on Aug. 16 at 7am, police said. There was no indication she scanned out of the building after that. Prudhomme worked in an underpopulated area of the building. Her cause of death had not been determined, but police said the preliminary
‘DISCONNECTED’: Politics is one factor driving news avoidance, a professor said, adding that people who do not trust the government are more likely to tune it out Hannah Wong cried when the Hong Kong government effectively forced the territory’s Apple Daily and Stand News out of business three years ago. Among the last news firms in the territory willing to criticize the government openly, many saw their end as a sign that the old Hong Kong was gone for good. Today, the 35-year-old makeup artist says she has gone from reading the news every day to reducing her intake drastically to protect herself from despair. Four years into a crackdown on dissent that has swept up democracy-leaning journalists, rights advocates and politicians in the territory, a lot of people
Thailand has netted more than 1.3 million kilograms of highly destructive blackchin tilapia fish, the government said yesterday, as it battles to stamp out the invasive species. Shoals of blackchin tilapia, which can produce up to 500 young at a time, have been found in 19 provinces, damaging ecosystems in rivers, swamps and canals by preying on small fish, shrimp and snail larvae. As well as the ecological impact, the government is worried about the effect on the kingdom’s crucial fish-farming industry. Fishing authorities caught 1,332,000kg of blackchin tilapia from February to Wednesday last week, said Nattacha Boonchaiinsawat, vice president of a parliamentary