MANILA - US-backed soldiers with night-vision goggles combed dense southern Philippine jungles on Thursday in pursuit of kidnappers who dragged three Red Cross workers from their vehicle at gunpoint, in the country’s most high-profile foreign kidnapping in eight years.
An army general said they hoped to rescue the workers from Italy, Switzerland and the Philippines before they’re handed over to Muslim militants notorious for holding hostages for ransom.
The gunmen on motorcycles intercepted a vehicle carrying the three representatives of the International Committee of the Red Cross on their way to Jolo airport on the southern island where the Al-Qaeda-linked Abu Sayyaf are known to hide. The driver and two other Filipinos were released and reported the incident, Philippine National Red Cross Chairman Richard Gordon told The Associated Press.
Maj. Gen. Juancho Sabban, head of Jolo’s anti-terrorism task force, said their vehicle was found abandoned near mountainous Patikul town, the scene of many clashes between troops and Abu Sayyaf militants hiding in thick jungles.
The gunmen took the hostages into Patikul’s rain forest and headed toward nearby Indanan township, possibly to turn the hostages over to notorious Abu Sayyaf commander Albader Parad, Sabban told The AP by telephone from Jolo. Abu Sayyaf militants are notorious for beheading their hostages and are on a US list of terrorist organizations with links to Al-Qaeda.
American counterterrorism troops were providing noncombat “assistance and advice” to Philippine forces, a US military official said on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.
Marines equipped with night-vision goggles were pursuing the kidnappers on foot after their vehicles got stuck in thick mud, Sabban said. “That jungle is so dense, you couldn’t see each other even at a close distance.”
The kidnapped workers were Swiss Andreas Notter, 38; Italian Eugenio Vagni, 62; and Filipino Mary Jean Lacaba, 37. They had traveled to Jolo to inspect water sanitation projects. - AP