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| Southeast Asia |
| 2 Abu Sayyaf kidnapping victims walk free |
| 2010-02-27 |
| [Straits Times] TWO men abducted by Al Qaeda-linked militants walked free from the southern Philippines jungle on Friday, police said, nearly three months after a fellow hostage was beheaded. Had their heads on, too, which is unusual... Michael Tan and Oscar Lu were fetched by police from a remote village near Sumisip town on Basilan island late Friday and taken to a local hospital, a police report said. Police said Abu Sayyaf militants abducted the two along with a third employee of Hitech Woodcraft Corp. in the Basilan town of Maluso on Nov 10. The severed head of Mark Singson, the third hostage, was found abandoned at a Basilan park in early December. It was unclear if ransom had changed hands. The kidnappers are known to have demanded money from the families of the surviving victims, who police said are both of Chinese descent. The police report said the two were 'rescued' at the end of 'three months and 16 days of operations with pressure provided by joint checkpoints and operations' by the police and military. However it was not clear from the report if a firefight had preceded their release or if they were abandoned by fleeing kidnappers. Founded in the early 1990s with seed money from Osama bin Laden, the Abu Sayyaf is blamed for a series of bombings and kidnappings targeting foreign missionaries, Christians, and US military advisers based in the south. |
| Posted by:Fred |