[Manila is 12:0 hours ahead of New York ]
yellow missing text
June 2, 2001, Reuters, 8:30 PM, Six Philippine hostages escape but scores remain trapped, Erik de Castro
June 2, 2001, Reuters, 8:15 PM, Six Philippine Hostages Escape, Scores Trapped, by Erik de Castro,
June 2, 2001, Reuters, 8:13 PM, Six Philippine Hostages Escape, Scores Trapped, by Erik de Castro,
June 2, 2001, AFP, 7:59 PM, Abu Sayyaf mounts counter attack on security forces,
June 2, 2001, AFP, 7:20 PM, Top Abu Sayyaf leader killed: President Arroyo
June 2, 2001, Reuters, 6:26 PM Four Philippine hostages escape but scores remain trapped, Erik de Castro
June 2, 2001, Reuters, 6:04 PM, Four Philippine Hostages Escape, Scores Trapped, by Erik de Castro,
June 2, 2001, AFP, 5:47 PM, Chronology of Philippines hostage crisis,
June 2, 2001, AP, 5:17 PM, Military Clashes With Kidnappers,
June 2, 2001, AP, 5:15 PM, Military Clashes With Kidnappers, by Jim Gomez,
June 2, 2001, AP, 4:58 PM, Military Clashes With Kidnapper, by Jim Gomez,
June 2, 2001, AFP, 4:58 PM, Negotiations underway to end mass kidnap stand off: military,
June 2, 2001, AP, 4:57 PM, Military Clashes With Kidnapper, by Jim Gomez,
June 2, 2001, AFP, 4:04 PM, Negotiations taking place to end mass kidnap stand off: military,
June 2, 2001, Reuters, 4:00 PM, Four Philippine Hostages Escape, 200 Still Trapped, by Erik de Castro,
June 2, 2001, Reuters, 1:45 PM, Four Philippine hostages escape from guerrillas' grip, by Erik de Castro,
June 2, 2001, AP, 1:42 PM, Military Clashes With Kidnapper, by Jim Gomez,
June 2, 2001, Reuters, 1:19 PM, Four Philippine Hostages Escape From Rebels' Grip, by Erik de Castro,
June 2, 2001, AFP, 1:16 PM, Six soldiers killed, 41 injured in assault against kidnappers,
June 2, 2001, AFP, 1:01 PM, Fighting mounts in Philippine town as Muslim rebels take more hostages,
June 2, 2001, Reuters, 12:24 PM, Four Philippine hostages escape during fighting,
June 2, 2001, Reuters, 11:59 AM, Three Philippine hostages escape during fighting,
June 2, 2001, Reuters, 11:53 AM, Manila Time, Three More Philippine Hostages Escape During Fighting,
June 2, 2001, AFP, 11:38 AM,Three American hostages in hospital occupied by Abu Sayyaf,
June 2, 2001, Reuters, 11:30 AM, Philippine Military Confirm One Hostage Escaped,
June 2, 2001, AFP, 10:31 AM, Abu Sayyaf take 200 hostage in southern Philippines, fighting rages,
June 2, 2001, Reuters, 10:15 AM, Philippine military reported to have found one hostage,
June 2, 2001, AFP, 9:18 AM, Philippine troops recover hostage from resort,
June 2, 2001, Reuters, 8:49 AM, Philippine guerrillas say they've taken 200 more hostages,
June 2, 2001, Reuters, 8:36 AM, Rebels Take Over Hospital, Church in S.Philippines, by Erik de Castro,
June 2, 2001, AP, 8:35 AM, Military-Kidnapper Clashes Continue, by Jim Gomez,
June 2, 2001, Reuters, 8:15 AM ET, Six Philippine Hostages Escape, Scores Trapped, by Erik de Castro,
June 2, 2001, AFP, 7:38 AM, Several killed in new hostage drama: Philippine officials,
June 2, 2001, AP, 7:36 AM, Philippines Army, Kidnappers Clash, by Jim Gomez
June 2, 2001, AFP, 6:39 AM, Abu Sayyaf take 200 people hostage: report,
June 2, 2001, Reuters, 12:24 AM, Four Philippine hostages escape during fighting,
____________________________________________________________
June 2, 2001, Reuters, 8:30 PM, Six Philippine hostages escape but scores remain trapped, Erik de Castro
Saturday,
LAMITAN, Philippines (Reuters) - Scores of civilians were trapped as Philippine military helicopters fired rockets and troops rained gunfire on a hospital and a church taken over by Muslim rebels in the south on Saturday, officials said.
But at least six people out of 20 kidnapped by the guerrillas from an island resort a week ago were rescued or managed to escape in the confusion, President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo said.
Four of them were Filipinos, including an eight-year-old boy, but Arroyo did not say who the other two were. Military officials said they were still confirming identities.
There was no confirmed news on the whereabouts of the other people kidnapped at the time, including three Americans, but they are also believed to be trapped in the hospital in the town of Lamitan on Basilan island.
Residents said more than a dozen people were killed, including civilians caught in the crossfire, but the military said it could only confirm four soldiers and at least one rebel dead during the day.
Arroyo, speaking on national television, later said the rebel leader Khadafy Janjalani was among the dead.
"With his death, the bandits have lost their source of strength," she said. "To the leaders of the Abu Sayyaf - there is no place to hide, so better release all the hostages and surrender. It needs only one bullet to get you."
Some 50 Abu Sayyaf rebels, fleeing from troops along with their hostages, rampaged through Lamitan, 900 km (550 miles) south of Manila, before dawn and took over a church and the town's main hospital.
They claimed they had captured an additional 200 people, including doctors, patients and a priest. However, a man who escaped from the hospital said he estimated there were about 100 trapped there.
SNIPERS TAKEN OUT
Troops directed mortar rounds and gunfire at the rebel positions and then sent in helicopter gunships to blast guerrilla snipers perched in the belfry of the St Peters Church and on the roof of the adjoining hospital.
Machinegun bursts from armoured troop carriers peppered rebel positions.
But by evening, fighting tapered off and the military said there was no return fire from the rebels.
"The Abu Sayyaf is not responding to gunfire, but we cannot assume they are running out of ammunition," said spokesman Colonel Horacio Lapinid.
"We have the upper hand. We are optimistic we will be able to rescue all the hostages safely."
Three Filipino tourists, including an eight-year-old boy, and a hotel security guard kidnapped last Sunday managed to escape along with some of those captured in Lamitan earlier in the day.
Ten fishermen abducted by the guerrillas were also freed.
"One kind Abu Sayyaf allowed me to run away," said Joey Candido, who was taken captive in the hospital. "I saw two Americans inside hugging each other in fright."
Lapinid told reporters in nearby Zamboanga city, the headquarters of the southern command, that four soldiers were killed and 12 wounded in the fighting. Another spokesman said the body of an Abu Sayyaf gunman was also recovered.
Rose Tamayo, a correspondent for the Pilipino Star newspaper, said she counted 12 bodies at the Lamitan Municipal Hospital but could not tell if they were of civilians, rebels or soldiers.
Dozens of others with bullet wounds were being treated, she said.
Lamitan, a mainly Christian town of about 100,000 people, was badly scarred by the fighting. One school was burned down and bullet-marks pocked the fronts of many houses.
Thousands of residents fled the town. "This is affecting our lives too much. We're evacuating without money," Hadja Nhena said while carrying belongings and pulling her four children through the streets.
A spokesman for the Abu Sayyaf guerrillas said in a telephone call to a local radio station that the group would execute hostages if the military did not pull back.
"We are part of an Abu Sayyaf suicide squad," spokesman Abu Sulaiman told the radio. "Now we have 200 more hostages. If you do not stop the military action, we will execute the hostages."
NO BACKING DOWN
But the government refused to back down. "We shall pursue these policies until we annihilate the Abu Sayyaf terrorists, capture them or force them to surrender," said presidential spokesman Rigoberto Tiglao.
Basilan is a mountainous, heavily forested island and its jungle-clad hills have long provided base camps for the Abu Sayyaf, which claims to be fighting for an independent Muslim homeland but appears to concentrate on kidnap for ransom.
Lamitan, a bustling market town, is on its northern coast, slightly inland but connected to the sea by an estuary.
After six days of searching for the rebel gang across scores of islands and the seas in the archipelago, troops finally engaged them in thickly forested brush some six km (four miles) outside Lamitan on Friday.
The guerrillas lost some men but managed to escape toward Lamitan overnight, apparently in a search for medicine and treatment for wounded colleagues.
__________________________________________________________
June 2, 2001, Reuters, 8:15 PM, Six Philippine Hostages Escape, Scores Trapped, by Erik de Castro,
[Posted Saturday June 2 8:15 AM ET]
LAMITAN, Philippines (Reuters) - Scores of civilians were trapped as Philippine military helicopters fired rockets and troops rained gunfire on a hospital and a church taken over by Muslim rebels in the south on Saturday, officials said.
But at least six people out of 20 kidnapped by the guerrillas from an island resort a week ago were rescued or managed to escape in the confusion, President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo said.
Four of them were Filipinos, including an eight-year-old boy, but Arroyo did not say who the other two were. Military officials said they were still confirming identities.
There was no confirmed news on the whereabouts of the other people kidnapped at the time, including three Americans, but they are also believed to be trapped in the hospital in the town of Lamitan on Basilan island.
Residents said more than a dozen people were killed, including civilians caught in the crossfire, but the military said it could only confirm four soldiers and at least one rebel dead during the day.
Arroyo, speaking on national television, later said the rebel leader Khadafy Janjalani was among the dead.
"With his death, the bandits have lost their source of strength," she said. "To the leaders of the Abu Sayyaf -- there is no place to hide, so better release all the hostages and surrender. It needs only one bullet to get you."
Some 50 Abu Sayyaf rebels, fleeing from troops along with their hostages, rampaged through Lamitan, 900 km (550 miles) south of Manila, before dawn and took over a church and the town's main hospital.
They claimed they had captured an additional 200 people, including doctors, patients and a priest. However, a man who escaped from the hospital said he estimated there were about 100 trapped there.
SNIPERS TAKEN OUT
Troops directed mortar rounds and gunfire at the rebel positions and then sent in helicopter gunships to blast guerrilla snipers perched in the belfry of the St. Peters Church and on the roof of the adjoining hospital.
Machinegun bursts from armored troop carriers peppered rebel positions.
But by evening, fighting tapered off and the military said there was no return fire from the rebels.
"The Abu Sayyaf is not responding to gunfire, but we cannot assume they are running out of ammunition," said spokesman Colonel Horacio Lapinid.
"We have the upper hand. We are optimistic we will be able to rescue all the hostages safely."
Three Filipino tourists, including an eight-year-old boy, and a hotel security guard kidnapped last Sunday managed to escape along with some of those captured in Lamitan earlier in the day.
Ten fishermen abducted by the guerrillas were also freed.
"One kind Abu Sayyaf allowed me to run away," said Joey Candido, who was taken captive in the hospital.
"I saw two Americans inside hugging each other in fright."
Lapinid told reporters in nearby Zamboanga city, the headquarters of the southern command, that four soldiers were killed and 12 wounded in the fighting. Another spokesman said the body of an Abu Sayyaf gunman was also recovered.
Rose Tamayo, a correspondent for the Pilipino Star newspaper, said she counted 12 bodies at the Lamitan Municipal Hospital but could not tell if they were of civilians, rebels or soldiers.
Dozens of others with bullet wounds were being treated, she said.
Lamitan, a mainly Christian town of about 100,000 people, was badly scarred by the fighting. One school was burned down and bullet-marks pocked the fronts of many houses.
Thousands of residents fled the town. "This is affecting our lives too much. We're evacuating without money," Hadja Nhena said while carrying belongings and pulling her four children through the streets.
A spokesman for the Abu Sayyaf guerrillas said in a telephone call to a local radio station that the group would execute hostages if the military did not pull back.
"We are part of an Abu Sayyaf suicide squad," spokesman Abu Sulaiman told the radio.
"Now we have 200 more hostages. If you do not stop the military action, we will execute the hostages."
NO BACKING DOWN
But the government refused to back down. "We shall pursue these policies until we annihilate the Abu Sayyaf terrorists, capture them or force them to surrender," said presidential spokesman Rigoberto Tiglao.
Basilan is a mountainous, heavily forested island and its jungle-clad hills have long provided base camps for the Abu Sayyaf, which claims to be fighting for an independent Muslim homeland but appears to concentrate on kidnap for ransom.
Lamitan, a bustling market town, is on its northern coast, slightly inland but connected to the sea by an estuary.
After six days of searching for the rebel gang across scores of islands and the seas in the archipelago, troops finally engaged them in thickly forested brush some six km (four miles) outside Lamitan on Friday.
The guerrillas lost some men but managed to escape toward Lamitan overnight, apparently in a search for medicine and treatment for wounded colleagues.
______________________________________________________________
June 2, 2001, Reuters, 8:13 PM, Six Philippine Hostages Escape, Scores Trapped, by Erik de Castro,
Saturday, [Posted 8:13 AM ET]
LAMITAN, Philippines (Reuters) - Scores of civilians were trapped as Philippine military helicopters fired rockets and troops rained gunfire on a hospital and a church taken over by Muslim rebels in the south on Saturday, officials said.
Reuters Photo
Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo (R) escorts freed hostages RJ Recio (C), 8, and Rejhis Romero after a meeting at Arroyo's residence in Makati's financial district of Manila June 2, 2001. Recio and Romero and four other hostages held by Muslim rebels in the southern Philippines for the past week escaped during a military strike on the rebels guerrilla position, officials said. (Alex De La Rosa/Reuters)
But at least six people out of 20 kidnapped by the guerrillas from an island resort a week ago were rescued or managed to escape in the confusion, President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo said.
Four of them were Filipinos, including an eight-year-old boy, but Arroyo did not say who the other two were. Military officials said they were still confirming identities.
There was no confirmed news on the whereabouts of the other people kidnapped at the time, including three Americans, but they are also believed to be trapped in the hospital in the town of Lamitan on Basilan island.
Residents said more than a dozen people were killed, including civilians caught in the crossfire, but the military said it could only confirm four soldiers and at least one rebel dead during the day.
Arroyo, speaking on national television, later said the rebel leader Khadafy Janjalani was among the dead.
"With his death, the bandits have lost their source of strength," she said. "To the leaders of the Abu Sayyaf -- there is no place to hide, so better release all the hostages and surrender. It needs only one bullet to get you."
Some 50 Abu Sayyaf rebels, fleeing from troops along with their hostages, rampaged through Lamitan, 900 km (550 miles) south of Manila, before dawn and took over a church and the town's main hospital.
They claimed they had captured an additional 200 people, including doctors, patients and a priest. However, a man who escaped from the hospital said he estimated there were about 100 trapped there.
SNIPERS TAKEN OUT
Troops directed mortar rounds and gunfire at the rebel positions and then sent in helicopter gunships to blast guerrilla snipers perched in the belfry of the St. Peters Church and on the roof of the adjoining hospital.
Machinegun bursts from armored troop carriers peppered rebel positions.
But by evening, fighting tapered off and the military said there was no return fire from the rebels.
"The Abu Sayyaf is not responding to gunfire, but we cannot assume they are running out of ammunition," said spokesman Colonel Horacio Lapinid.
"We have the upper hand. We are optimistic we will be able to rescue all the hostages safely."
Three Filipino tourists, including an eight-year-old boy, and a hotel security guard kidnapped last Sunday managed to escape along with some of those captured in Lamitan earlier in the day.
Ten fishermen abducted by the guerrillas were also freed.
"One kind Abu Sayyaf allowed me to run away," said Joey Candido, who was taken captive in the hospital.
"I saw two Americans inside hugging each other in fright."
Lapinid told reporters in nearby Zamboanga city, the headquarters of the southern command, that four soldiers were killed and 12 wounded in the fighting. Another spokesman said the body of an Abu Sayyaf gunman was also recovered.
Rose Tamayo, a correspondent for the Pilipino Star newspaper, said she counted 12 bodies at the Lamitan Municipal Hospital but could not tell if they were of civilians, rebels or soldiers.
(wouldn't that be "the town's main hospital.")
Dozens of others with bullet wounds were being treated, she said.
Lamitan, a mainly Christian town of about 100,000 people, was badly scarred by the fighting. One school was burned down and bullet-marks pocked the fronts of many houses.
Thousands of residents fled the town. "This is affecting our lives too much. We're evacuating without money," Hadja Nhena said while carrying belongings and pulling her four children through the streets.
A spokesman for the Abu Sayyaf guerrillas said in a telephone call to a local radio station that the group would execute hostages if the military did not pull back.
"We are part of an Abu Sayyaf suicide squad," spokesman Abu Sulaiman told the radio. "Now we have 200 more hostages. If you do not stop the military action, we will execute the hostages."
NO BACKING DOWN
But the government refused to back down. "We shall pursue these policies until we annihilate the Abu Sayyaf terrorists, capture them or force them to surrender," said presidential spokesman Rigoberto Tiglao.
Basilan is a mountainous, heavily forested island and its jungle-clad hills have long provided base camps for the Abu Sayyaf, which claims to be fighting for an independent Muslim homeland but appears to concentrate on kidnap for ransom.
Lamitan, a bustling market town, is on its northern coast, slightly inland but connected to the sea by an estuary.
After six days of searching for the rebel gang across scores of islands and the seas in the archipelago, troops finally engaged them in thickly forested brush some six km (four miles) outside Lamitan on Friday.
The guerrillas lost some men but managed to escape toward Lamitan overnight, apparently in a search for medicine and treatment for wounded colleagues.
______________________________________________________________________
June 2, 2001, AFP, 7:59 PM, Abu Sayyaf mounts counter attack on security forces,
Saturday
LAMITAN, Philippines, June 2 (AFP)
Abu Sayyaf rebels, firing rocket propelled grenades and mortars, mounted a counter attack on soldiers trying to rescue 200 hostages in a hospital and church in the southern Philippines, witnesses said.
Scores of rebel reinforcements emerged from the surrounding forests under the cover of darkness to back guerrillas advancing on the troops, witnesses told AFP.
As the troops were forced back, hundreds of residents, including women carrying babies, fled aboard jeeps amid the boom of mortar fire and explosions.
_______________________________________________________
June 2, 2001, AFP, 7:20 PM, Top Abu Sayyaf leader killed: President Arroyo
Saturday
MANILA, June 2 (AFP) -The highest ranking leader of the Abu Sayyaf, Khadaffy Janjalani, was killed in a battle with government troops in the southern island of Basilan, President Gloria Arroyo announced Saturday.
"The supreme leader of the terrorists -- Khadaffy Janjalani -- was killed by security forces," Arroyo said.
She said his death dealt a heavy blow to the Abu Sayyaf Muslim rebels, who had stormed a hospital and a church and took 200 people captive in Lamitan town in Basilan.
Arroyo said Janjalani was killed in the town of Tuburan near Lamitan.
Another Abu Sayyaf leader, Abu Sabaya, who also doubles as the group's spokesman, was wounded, she said.
Fighting broke out Friday in Tuburan, where scores of Abu Sayyaf gunmen holding three Americans and 17 Filipino hostages they seized from a upmarket beach resort in Palawan fled from a military pursuit.
The gunmen escaped to nearby Lamitan at dawn Saturday, storming a church and a hospital and holding up to 200 new hostages, including a priest and hospital staff.
News of the death of Janjalani and the wounding of Sabaya were reported earlier Saturday by radio stations but the military said they could not confirm the reports until they saw the rebel leader's body.
But in her television address, Arroyo said: "We are confirming this."
Janjalani is the brother of Abdurajak Janjalani, a firebrand Muslim preacher who founded the Abu Sayyaf in the early 1990s.
After Abdurajak was killed in 1998, he was succeeded by his brother, named after the Libyan leader Moamer Khadaffy, whose country is believed to have trained several Abu Sayyaf gunmen.
"With his death, the bandits have lost a pillar," a grim-looking Arroyo said.
"The fighting continues and we will not stop until all the hostages are freed," the president said. "We will annihilate the bandits if they will not surrender at the earliest possible time."
Arroyo said the Abu Sayyaf were now "desperate" after troops sealed off all exit points in Lamitan.
"To the leaders of the Abu Sayyaf, you have nowhere to run. So it is best that you free your hostages and surrender. You are only worth one bullet," Arroyo said.
__________________________________________________________
June 2, 2001, Reuters, 6:26 PM Four Philippine hostages escape but scores remain trapped, Erik de Castro
Saturday
LAMITAN, Philippines (Reuters) - Scores of civilians were trapped as Philippine helicopter gunships fired rockets and troops rained gunfire on a hospital and a church taken over by Muslim rebels in the south on Saturday, officials said.
But at least four Filipinos kidnapped by the guerrillas from an island resort a week ago managed to escape in the confusion.
There was no confirmed news on the whereabouts of the other 16 people kidnapped at the time, who include three Americans, but they are also believed to be trapped in the hospital in the town of Lamitan on Basilan island.
Residents said more than a dozen people were killed, including many civilians caught in the crossfire, but the military said they could only confirm four soldiers and one rebel dead.
Some 50 Abu Sayyaf rebels, fleeing from troops along with their hostages, rampaged through Lamitan, 900 km (550 miles) south of Manila, before dawn and took over a church and the town's main hospital.
They claimed they had captured an additional 200 people, including doctors, patients and a priest. However, a man who escaped from the hospital said he estimated there were about 100 trapped there.
Troops directed mortars and steady gunfire at the rebel positions and then sent in helicopter gunships to blast guerrilla snipers perched in the belfry of the St Peters Church and on the roof of the adjoining hospital.
Machine-gun bursts from armoured troop carriers also peppered rebel positions.
But by evening, fighting tapered off and the military said there was no return fire from the rebels.
"The Abu Sayyaf is not responding to gunfire, but we cannot assume they are running out of ammunition," said spokesman Colonel Horacio Lapinid.
"We have the upper hand. We are optimistic we will be able to rescue all the hostages safely."
EIGHT-YEAR-OLD ESCAPES
Three Filipino tourists, including an eight-year-old boy, and a hotel security guard kidnapped last Sunday managed to escape along with some of those captured in Lamitan earlier in the day.
"One kind Abu Sayyaf allowed me to run away," said Joey Candido, who was taken captive in the hospital. "I saw two Americans inside hugging each other in fright."
Lapinid told reporters in nearby Zamboanga city, the headquarters of the southern command, that four soldiers were killed and 12 wounded in the fighting. Another spokesman said the body of an Abu Sayyaf gunman was also recovered.
Rose Tamayo, a correspondent for the Pilipino Star newspaper, said she counted 12 bodies at the Lamitan Municipal Hospital but could not tell if they were of civilians, rebels or soldiers.
Dozens of others with bullet wounds were being treated, she said.
Lamitan, a mainly Christian town of about 100,000 people, was badly scarred by the fighting. One school was burned down and bullet-marks pocked the fronts of many houses.
Thousands of residents fled the town, taking ferries to safer parts of Basilan.
"This is affecting our lives too much. We're evacuating without money," Hadja Nhena said while carrying belongings and pulling her four children through the streets.
A spokesman for the Abu Sayyaf guerrillas said in a telephone call to a local radio station that the group would execute hostages if the military did not pull back.
"We are part of an Abu Sayyaf suicide squad," spokesman Abu Sulaiman told the radio. "Now we have 200 more hostages. If you do not stop the military action, we will execute the hostages."
NO BACKING DOWN
But the government refused to back down. "We shall pursue these policies until we annihilate the Abu Sayyaf terrorists, capture them or force them to surrender," said spokesman Rigoberto Tiglao.
President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo has driven the policy, vowing there will be no compromise with the rebels.
Basilan is a mountainous, heavily forested island and its jungle-clad hills have long provided base camps for the Abu Sayyaf, which claims to be fighting for an independent Muslim homeland but appears to concentrate on kidnap for ransom.
Lamitan, a bustling market town, is on its northern coast, slightly inland but connected to the sea by an estuary.
After six days of searching for the rebel gang across scores of islands and the seas in the archipelago, troops finally engaged them in thickly forested brush some six km (four miles) outside Lamitan on Friday.
The guerrillas lost some men but managed to escape toward Lamitan overnight, apparently in a search for medicine and treatment for wounded colleagues.
________________________________________________________________
June 2, 2001, Reuters, 6:04 PM, Four Philippine Hostages Escape, Scores Trapped, by Erik de Castro,
[Posted Saturday June 2 6:04 AM ET]
LAMITAN, Philippines (Reuters) - Scores of civilians were trapped as Philippine helicopter gunships fired rockets and troops rained gunfire on a hospital and a church taken over by Muslim rebels in the south on Saturday, officials said.
But at least four Filipinos kidnapped by the guerrillas from an island resort a week ago managed to escape in the confusion.
There was no confirmed news on the whereabouts of the other 16 people kidnapped at the time, who include three Americans, but they are also believed to be trapped in the hospital in the town of Lamitan on Basilan island.
Residents said more than a dozen people were killed, including many civilians caught in the crossfire, but the military said they could only confirm four soldiers and one rebel dead.
Some 50 Abu Sayyaf rebels, fleeing from troops along with their hostages, rampaged through Lamitan, 550 miles south of Manila, before dawn and took over a church and the town's main hospital.
They claimed they had captured an additional 200 people, including doctors, patients and a priest. However, a man who escaped from the hospital said he estimated there were about 100 trapped there.
Troops directed mortars and steady gunfire at the rebel positions and then sent in helicopter gunships to blast guerrilla snipers perched in the belfry of the St. Peters Church and on the roof of the adjoining hospital.
Machine-gun bursts from armored troop carriers also peppered rebel positions.
But by evening, fighting tapered off and the military said there was no return fire from the rebels.
"The Abu Sayyaf is not responding to gunfire, but we cannot assume they are running out of ammunition," said spokesman Colonel Horacio Lapinid.
"We have the upper hand. We are optimistic we will be able to rescue all the hostages safely."
EIGHT-YEAR-OLD ESCAPES
Three Filipino tourists, including an eight-year-old boy, and a hotel security guard kidnapped last Sunday managed to escape along with some of those captured in Lamitan earlier in the day.
"One kind Abu Sayyaf allowed me to run away," said Joey Candido, who was taken captive in the hospital.
Lapinid told reporters in nearby Zamboanga city, the headquarters of the southern command, that four soldiers were killed and 12 wounded in the fighting. Another spokesman said the body of an Abu Sayyaf gunman was also recovered.
Rose Tamayo, a correspondent for the Pilipino Star newspaper, said she counted 12 bodies at the Lamitan Municipal Hospital but could not tell if they were of civilians, rebels or soldiers.
Dozens of others with bullet wounds were being treated, she said.
Lamitan, a mainly Christian town of about 100,000 people, was badly scarred by the fighting. One school was burned down and bullet-marks pocked the fronts of many houses.
Thousands of residents fled the town. "This is affecting our lives too much. We're evacuating without money," Hadja Nhena said while carrying belongings and pulling her four children through the streets.
A spokesman for the Abu Sayyaf guerrillas said in a telephone call to a local radio station that the group would execute hostages if the military did not pull back.
"We are part of an Abu Sayyaf suicide squad," spokesman Abu Sulaiman told the radio.
"Now we have 200 more hostages. If you do not stop the military action, we will execute the hostages."
NO BACKING DOWN
But the government refused to back down. "We shall pursue these policies until we annihilate the Abu Sayyaf terrorists, capture them or force them to surrender," said presidential spokesman Rigoberto Tiglao.
Basilan is a mountainous, heavily forested island and its jungle-clad hills have long provided base camps for the Abu Sayyaf, which claims to be fighting for an independent Muslim homeland but appears to concentrate on kidnap for ransom.
Lamitan, a bustling market town, is on its northern coast, slightly inland but connected to the sea by an estuary.
After six days of searching for the rebel gang across scores of islands and the seas in the archipelago, troops finally engaged them in thickly forested brush some six km (four miles) outside Lamitan on Friday.
The guerrillas lost some men but managed to escape toward Lamitan overnight, apparently in a search for medicine and treatment for wounded colleagues.
______________________________________________________________
June 2, 2001, Reuters, 8:13 PM, Six Philippine Hostages Escape, Scores Trapped, by Erik de Castro,
Saturday, [Posted 8:13 AM ET]
LAMITAN, Philippines (Reuters) - Scores of civilians were trapped as Philippine military helicopters fired rockets and troops rained gunfire on a hospital and a church taken over by Muslim rebels in the south on Saturday, officials said.
Reuters Photo
Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo (R) escorts freed hostages RJ Recio (C), 8, and Rejhis Romero after a meeting at Arroyo's residence in Makati's financial district of Manila June 2, 2001. Recio and Romero and four other hostages held by Muslim rebels in the southern Philippines for the past week escaped during a military strike on the rebels guerrilla position, officials said. (Alex De La Rosa/Reuters)
But at least six people out of 20 kidnapped by the guerrillas from an island resort a week ago were rescued or managed to escape in the confusion, President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo said.
Four of them were Filipinos, including an eight-year-old boy, but Arroyo did not say who the other two were. Military officials said they were still confirming identities.
There was no confirmed news on the whereabouts of the other people kidnapped at the time, including three Americans, but they are also believed to be trapped in the hospital in the town of Lamitan on Basilan island.
Residents said more than a dozen people were killed, including civilians caught in the crossfire, but the military said it could only confirm four soldiers and at least one rebel dead during the day.
Arroyo, speaking on national television, later said the rebel leader Khadafy Janjalani was among the dead.
"With his death, the bandits have lost their source of strength," she said. "To the leaders of the Abu Sayyaf -- there is no place to hide, so better release all the hostages and surrender. It needs only one bullet to get you."
Some 50 Abu Sayyaf rebels, fleeing from troops along with their hostages, rampaged through Lamitan, 900 km (550 miles) south of Manila, before dawn and took over a church and the town's main hospital.
They claimed they had captured an additional 200 people, including doctors, patients and a priest. However, a man who escaped from the hospital said he estimated there were about 100 trapped there.
SNIPERS TAKEN OUT
Troops directed mortar rounds and gunfire at the rebel positions and then sent in helicopter gunships to blast guerrilla snipers perched in the belfry of the St. Peters Church and on the roof of the adjoining hospital.
Machinegun bursts from armored troop carriers peppered rebel positions.
But by evening, fighting tapered off and the military said there was no return fire from the rebels.
"The Abu Sayyaf is not responding to gunfire, but we cannot assume they are running out of ammunition," said spokesman Colonel Horacio Lapinid.
"We have the upper hand. We are optimistic we will be able to rescue all the hostages safely."
Three Filipino tourists, including an eight-year-old boy, and a hotel security guard kidnapped last Sunday managed to escape along with some of those captured in Lamitan earlier in the day.
Ten fishermen abducted by the guerrillas were also freed.
"One kind Abu Sayyaf allowed me to run away," said Joey Candido, who was taken captive in the hospital.
"I saw two Americans inside hugging each other in fright."
Lapinid told reporters in nearby Zamboanga city, the headquarters of the southern command, that four soldiers were killed and 12 wounded in the fighting. Another spokesman said the body of an Abu Sayyaf gunman was also recovered.
Rose Tamayo, a correspondent for the Pilipino Star newspaper, said she counted 12 bodies at the Lamitan Municipal Hospital but could not tell if they were of civilians, rebels or soldiers.
Dozens of others with bullet wounds were being treated, she said.
Lamitan, a mainly Christian town of about 100,000 people, was badly scarred by the fighting. One school was burned down and bullet-marks pocked the fronts of many houses.
Thousands of residents fled the town. "This is affecting our lives too much. We're evacuating without money," Hadja Nhena said while carrying belongings and pulling her four children through the streets.
A spokesman for the Abu Sayyaf guerrillas said in a telephone call to a local radio station that the group would execute hostages if the military did not pull back.
"We are part of an Abu Sayyaf suicide squad," spokesman Abu Sulaiman told the radio. "Now we have 200 more hostages. If you do not stop the military action, we will execute the hostages."
NO BACKING DOWN
But the government refused to back down. "We shall pursue these policies until we annihilate the Abu Sayyaf terrorists, capture them or force them to surrender," said presidential spokesman Rigoberto Tiglao.
Basilan is a mountainous, heavily forested island and its jungle-clad hills have long provided base camps for the Abu Sayyaf, which claims to be fighting for an independent Muslim homeland but appears to concentrate on kidnap for ransom.
Lamitan, a bustling market town, is on its northern coast, slightly inland but connected to the sea by an estuary.
After six days of searching for the rebel gang across scores of islands and the seas in the archipelago, troops finally engaged them in thickly forested brush some six km (four miles) outside Lamitan on Friday.
The guerrillas lost some men but managed to escape toward Lamitan overnight, apparently in a search for medicine and treatment for wounded colleagues.
______________________________________________________________________
June 2, 2001, AFP, 7:59 PM, Abu Sayyaf mounts counter attack on security forces,
Saturday
LAMITAN, Philippines, June 2 (AFP)
Abu Sayyaf rebels, firing rocket propelled grenades and mortars, mounted a counter attack on soldiers trying to rescue 200 hostages in a hospital and church in the southern Philippines, witnesses said.
Scores of rebel reinforcements emerged from the surrounding forests under the cover of darkness to back guerrillas advancing on the troops, witnesses told AFP.
As the troops were forced back, hundreds of residents, including women carrying babies, fled aboard jeeps amid the boom of mortar fire and explosions.
_______________________________________________________
June 2, 2001, AFP, 7:20 PM, Top Abu Sayyaf leader killed: President Arroyo
Saturday
MANILA, June 2 (AFP) -The highest ranking leader of the Abu Sayyaf, Khadaffy Janjalani, was killed in a battle with government troops in the southern island of Basilan, President Gloria Arroyo announced Saturday.
"The supreme leader of the terrorists -- Khadaffy Janjalani -- was killed by security forces," Arroyo said.
She said his death dealt a heavy blow to the Abu Sayyaf Muslim rebels, who had stormed a hospital and a church and took 200 people captive in Lamitan town in Basilan.
Arroyo said Janjalani was killed in the town of Tuburan near Lamitan.
Another Abu Sayyaf leader, Abu Sabaya, who also doubles as the group's spokesman, was wounded, she said.
Fighting broke out Friday in Tuburan, where scores of Abu Sayyaf gunmen holding three Americans and 17 Filipino hostages they seized from a upmarket beach resort in Palawan fled from a military pursuit.
The gunmen escaped to nearby Lamitan at dawn Saturday, storming a church and a hospital and holding up to 200 new hostages, including a priest and hospital staff.
News of the death of Janjalani and the wounding of Sabaya were reported earlier Saturday by radio stations but the military said they could not confirm the reports until they saw the rebel leader's body.
But in her television address, Arroyo said: "We are confirming this."
Janjalani is the brother of Abdurajak Janjalani, a firebrand Muslim preacher who founded the Abu Sayyaf in the early 1990s.
After Abdurajak was killed in 1998, he was succeeded by his brother, named after the Libyan leader Moamer Khadaffy, whose country is believed to have trained several Abu Sayyaf gunmen.
"With his death, the bandits have lost a pillar," a grim-looking Arroyo said.
"The fighting continues and we will not stop until all the hostages are freed," the president said. "We will annihilate the bandits if they will not surrender at the earliest possible time."
Arroyo said the Abu Sayyaf were now "desperate" after troops sealed off all exit points in Lamitan.
"To the leaders of the Abu Sayyaf, you have nowhere to run. So it is best that you free your hostages and surrender. You are only worth one bullet," Arroyo said.
__________________________________________________________
June 2, 2001, Reuters, 6:26 PM Four Philippine hostages escape but scores remain trapped, Erik de Castro
Saturday
LAMITAN, Philippines (Reuters) - Scores of civilians were trapped as Philippine helicopter gunships fired rockets and troops rained gunfire on a hospital and a church taken over by Muslim rebels in the south on Saturday, officials said.
But at least four Filipinos kidnapped by the guerrillas from an island resort a week ago managed to escape in the confusion.
There was no confirmed news on the whereabouts of the other 16 people kidnapped at the time, who include three Americans, but they are also believed to be trapped in the hospital in the town of Lamitan on Basilan island.
Residents said more than a dozen people were killed, including many civilians caught in the crossfire, but the military said they could only confirm four soldiers and one rebel dead.
Some 50 Abu Sayyaf rebels, fleeing from troops along with their hostages, rampaged through Lamitan, 900 km (550 miles) south of Manila, before dawn and took over a church and the town's main hospital.
They claimed they had captured an additional 200 people, including doctors, patients and a priest. However, a man who escaped from the hospital said he estimated there were about 100 trapped there.
Troops directed mortars and steady gunfire at the rebel positions and then sent in helicopter gunships to blast guerrilla snipers perched in the belfry of the St Peters Church and on the roof of the adjoining hospital.
Machine-gun bursts from armoured troop carriers also peppered rebel positions.
But by evening, fighting tapered off and the military said there was no return fire from the rebels.
"The Abu Sayyaf is not responding to gunfire, but we cannot assume they are running out of ammunition," said spokesman Colonel Horacio Lapinid.
"We have the upper hand. We are optimistic we will be able to rescue all the hostages safely."
EIGHT-YEAR-OLD ESCAPES
Three Filipino tourists, including an eight-year-old boy, and a hotel security guard kidnapped last Sunday managed to escape along with some of those captured in Lamitan earlier in the day.
"One kind Abu Sayyaf allowed me to run away," said Joey Candido, who was taken captive in the hospital. "I saw two Americans inside hugging each other in fright."
Lapinid told reporters in nearby Zamboanga city, the headquarters of the southern command, that four soldiers were killed and 12 wounded in the fighting. Another spokesman said the body of an Abu Sayyaf gunman was also recovered.
Rose Tamayo, a correspondent for the Pilipino Star newspaper, said she counted 12 bodies at the Lamitan Municipal Hospital but could not tell if they were of civilians, rebels or soldiers.
Dozens of others with bullet wounds were being treated, she said.
Lamitan, a mainly Christian town of about 100,000 people, was badly scarred by the fighting. One school was burned down and bullet-marks pocked the fronts of many houses.
Thousands of residents fled the town, taking ferries to safer parts of Basilan.
"This is affecting our lives too much. We're evacuating without money," Hadja Nhena said while carrying belongings and pulling her four children through the streets.
A spokesman for the Abu Sayyaf guerrillas said in a telephone call to a local radio station that the group would execute hostages if the military did not pull back.
"We are part of an Abu Sayyaf suicide squad," spokesman Abu Sulaiman told the radio. "Now we have 200 more hostages. If you do not stop the military action, we will execute the hostages."
NO BACKING DOWN
But the government refused to back down. "We shall pursue these policies until we annihilate the Abu Sayyaf terrorists, capture them or force them to surrender," said spokesman Rigoberto Tiglao.
President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo has driven the policy, vowing there will be no compromise with the rebels.
Basilan is a mountainous, heavily forested island and its jungle-clad hills have long provided base camps for the Abu Sayyaf, which claims to be fighting for an independent Muslim homeland but appears to concentrate on kidnap for ransom.
Lamitan, a bustling market town, is on its northern coast, slightly inland but connected to the sea by an estuary.
After six days of searching for the rebel gang across scores of islands and the seas in the archipelago, troops finally engaged them in thickly forested brush some six km (four miles) outside Lamitan on Friday.
The guerrillas lost some men but managed to escape toward Lamitan overnight, apparently in a search for medicine and treatment for wounded colleagues.
________________________________________________________________
June 2, 2001, Reuters, 6:04 PM, Four Philippine Hostages Escape, Scores Trapped, by Erik de Castro,
[Posted Saturday June 2 6:04 AM ET]
LAMITAN, Philippines (Reuters) - Scores of civilians were trapped as Philippine helicopter gunships fired rockets and troops rained gunfire on a hospital and a church taken over by Muslim rebels in the south on Saturday, officials said.
But at least four Filipinos kidnapped by the guerrillas from an island resort a week ago managed to escape in the confusion.
There was no confirmed news on the whereabouts of the other 16 people kidnapped at the time, who include three Americans, but they are also believed to be trapped in the hospital in the town of Lamitan on Basilan island.
Residents said more than a dozen people were killed, including many civilians caught in the crossfire, but the military said they could only confirm four soldiers and one rebel dead.
Some 50 Abu Sayyaf rebels, fleeing from troops along with their hostages, rampaged through Lamitan, 550 miles south of Manila, before dawn and took over a church and the town's main hospital.
They claimed they had captured an additional 200 people, including doctors, patients and a priest. However, a man who escaped from the hospital said he estimated there were about 100 trapped there.
Troops directed mortars and steady gunfire at the rebel positions and then sent in helicopter gunships to blast guerrilla snipers perched in the belfry of the St. Peters Church and on the roof of the adjoining hospital.
Machine-gun bursts from armored troop carriers also peppered rebel positions.
But by evening, fighting tapered off and the military said there was no return fire from the rebels.
"The Abu Sayyaf is not responding to gunfire, but we cannot assume they are running out of ammunition," said spokesman Colonel Horacio Lapinid.
"We have the upper hand. We are optimistic we will be able to rescue all the hostages safely."
EIGHT-YEAR-OLD ESCAPES
Three Filipino tourists, including an eight-year-old boy, and a hotel security guard kidnapped last Sunday managed to escape along with some of those captured in Lamitan earlier in the day.
"One kind Abu Sayyaf allowed me to run away," said Joey Candido, who was taken captive in the hospital.
"I saw two Americans inside hugging each other in fright."
Lapinid told reporters in nearby Zamboanga city, the headquarters of the southern command, that four soldiers were killed and 12 wounded in the fighting. Another spokesman said the body of an Abu Sayyaf gunman was also recovered.
Rose Tamayo, a correspondent for the Pilipino Star newspaper, said she counted 12 bodies at the Lamitan Municipal Hospital but could not tell if they were of civilians, rebels or soldiers.
Dozens of others with bullet wounds were being treated, she said.
Lamitan, a mainly Christian town of about 100,000 people, was badly scarred by the fighting. One school was burned down and bullet-marks pocked the fronts of many houses.
Thousands of residents fled the town, taking ferries to safer parts of Basilan.
"This is affecting our lives too much. We're evacuating without money," Hadja Nhena said while carrying belongings and pulling her four children through the streets.
A spokesman for the Abu Sayyaf guerrillas said in a telephone call to a local radio station that the group would execute hostages if the military did not pull back.
"We are part of an Abu Sayyaf suicide squad," spokesman Abu Sulaiman told the radio. "Now we have 200 more hostages. If you do not stop the military action, we will execute the hostages."
NO BACKING DOWN
But the government refused to back down. ``We shall pursue these policies until we annihilate the Abu Sayyaf terrorists, capture them or force them to surrender,'' said spokesman Rigoberto Tiglao.
President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo (news - web sites) has driven the policy, vowing there will be no compromise with the rebels.
Basilan is a mountainous, heavily forested island and its jungle-clad hills have long provided base camps for the Abu Sayyaf, which claims to be fighting for an independent Muslim homeland but appears to concentrate on kidnap for ransom.
Lamitan, a bustling market town, is on its northern coast, slightly inland but connected to the sea by an estuary.
After six days of searching for the rebel gang across scores of islands and the seas in the archipelago, troops finally engaged them in thickly forested brush some six km (four miles) outside Lamitan on Friday.
The guerrillas lost some men but managed to escape toward Lamitan overnight, apparently in a search for medicine and treatment for wounded colleagues.
_____________________________________________________________________
June 2, 2001, AFP, 5:47 PM, Chronology of Philippines hostage crisis,
Saturday
MANILA, June 2 (AFP) -
A chronology of the Abu Sayyaf guerrilla group and the latest hostage crisis:
Early 1990s: Libyan-trained Islamic preacher Abdurajak Janjalani forms the Abu Sayyaf (Bearer of the Sword), finding common cause with young Muslim radicals disaffected by the older generation of Muslim separatist leaders in the southern Philippines.
The group adopts a fundamentalist ideology, bombs churches and kidnaps Christian missionaries in the south.
January 12, 1995: Abu Sayyaf is implicated in a plot to assassinate visiting Pope John Paul II. One of the alleged foreign assassins is arrested in Manila and later extradited to the United States.
April 4, 1995: Abu Sayyaf rebels raid the mainly Christian southern town of Ipil, killing 53 people and burning the town center.
December 18, 1998: Abu Sayyaf founder Abdurajak Janjalani is killed in a firefight with security forces in the southern island of Basilan. He is replaced by his younger brother, Khadaffy Janjalani.
April 23, 2000: Abu Sayyaf gunmen raid the Malaysian diving resort of Sipadan, off Borneo, and flee across the sea border to their Jolo island stronghold with 10 Western tourists and 11 Asian resort workers.
Several Western journalists covering the hostage crisis and Filipino preachers who go to mediate are also abducted.
August 27: Jolo kidnappers free most of their Western captives, after the reported payment of large ransoms.
August 28: American Jeffrey Schilling is abducted during a visit to Janjalani's camp.
September 9: Guerrillas free a number of European captives.
September 16: President Joseph Estrada launches a military assault in Jolo. Two kidnapped French journalists escape during the fighting.
January 20, 2001: Estrada is toppled in a popular uprising; Vice President Gloria Arroyo takes over and vows to get tough against the Abu Sayyaf.
April 12: US hostage Schilling is rescued, leaving only Filipino scuba diving instructor Roland Ullah in the gunmen's hands.
May 27: Abu Sayyaf gunmen raid the Dos Palmas resort off the western Philippine island of Palawan and seize 20 hostages, including three Americans: missionary couple Martin and Gracia Burnham from Kansas and Californian Guillermo Sobrero. Arroyo rules out ransom and unleashes the military against the kidnappers.
June 1: Clashes erupt between government troops and the kidnappers who are spotted in Tuburan town in Basilan island, some 480 kilometers (about 300 miles) from Palawan.
June 2: An Abu Sayyaf "suicide squad" take over a hospital and church in Lamitan, the second largest town in Basilan, holding as many as 200 hostages. Four of the hostages from the Palawan resort are recovered in Lamitan.
_____________________________________________________________________
Military Clashes With Kidnappers (AP) 5:17 PM
LAMITAN, Philippines (AP) - Philippine forces lay siege to a hospital where dozens of Muslim extremists were holed up with captives Saturday, blanketing the building with rockets and machine-gun fire in a bid to end a hostage crisis that has ballooned into a major battle on a rugged southern island.
__________________________________________________________
June 2, 2001, AP, 5:15 PM, Military Clashes With Kidnappers, by Jim Gomez,
[Posted Saturday June 2 5:15 AM ET]
LAMITAN, Philippines (AP) - Philippine forces lay siege to a hospital where dozens of Muslim extremists were holed up with captives Saturday, blanketing the building with rockets and machine-gun fire in a bid to end a hostage crisis that has ballooned into a major battle on a rugged southern island.
In one attack, at least two helicopter gunships fired at the hospital nonstop for half an hour as ground troops targeted the building from surrounding streets. Witnesses said at least one of the hostages inside was an American.
Officials said about 40 Abu Sayyaf rebels were holding doctors and patients in the hospital on Basilan island, along with some of the 20 hostages - three of them Americans - that members of the extremist group seized Sunday at a resort hundreds of miles away across the Sulu Sea.
"It appears we have encountered the main body of bandits," said Brig. Gen. Edilberto Adan, a military spokesman. "This is the scenario we wanted - to fix them in one location. We have now ringed the place."
The rebels eluded a massive search until they clashed with army forces in the rugged jungles of Basilan early Friday. The fighting then spread to the streets of Lamitan, and the military said six soldiers were killed and 41 wounded in two days of clashes. Witnesses also saw guerrilla and civilian casualties.
Basilan provincial Gov. Wahad Akbar said four of the 17 Filipino hostages from the resort, including an 8-year-old boy, escaped. At least one escaped hostage was injured and was evacuated. The whereabouts of at least two of three American hostages was unclear.
An Abu Sayyaf leader, Abu Suleiman, claimed he took 200 hostages in Lamitan, which was sealed off by troops, but the military said only 20 were seized, including priests, patients and doctors in the hospital, which houses a church in the same building.
Police tried to storm the one-story building at least three times Saturday, but were pushed back amid heavy gunfire. Several armored personnel carriers were standing by for another possible assault. The condition of the hostages was not clear.
Rolly Adars, a 37-year-old Lamitan resident who was in the hospital when the Abu Sayyaf rebels seized it, said he escaped out a door along with six children. He said he saw one tall American man, guarded by guerrillas with rifles and grenade launchers, in the hospital.
Suleiman phoned RMN radio to say he that had taken control of the hospital and threatened to kill hostages unless the government called off its offensive. Mayor Inocente Ramos cited sketchy reports that the rebels have 13 hostages in the hospital.
It was not clear whether the rebel gunmen in Lamitan were the same ones who raided the Dos Palmas Island Resort on Palawan island on Sunday. As of late Friday, that group was fighting soldiers in dense jungle near Lamitan, about 350 miles southeast of Palawan and 560 miles south of the capital, Manila.
National Security Adviser Roilo Golez said troops quickly surrounded the area and had the guerrillas trapped in the hospital.
At midday, between the assaults, gunfire eased in a tense standoff as a helicopter hovered over the hospital.
Residents scurried around side streets, bending low to avoid sniper fire, while police and soldiers hid behind cover around the bullet-scarred hospital. Thousands of civilians fled the fighting, clogging roads leading out of Lamitan.
Cindy Balisado, 28, who owns a restaurant a block from the hospital, refused to evacuate the town and cheered the police on. Lamitan, the second largest town in the province of Basilan, is one of two Christian towns on the predominantly Muslim island.
"I hope they kill them all," Basilado said. "I am not afraid. If you get frightened you will just give in to what the (Abu Sayyaf) want."
She said fighting broke out around midnight Friday and continued intensely for two hours, then erupted again after a brief pause. A grenade exploded on her roof but caused no injuries, she said.
Bidong Ismael, a town councilor, told RMN that he saw one Abu Sayyaf leader, Commander Yusuf, killed along with one soldier and a militiaman in Lamitan.
Teresa Ganzon, one of the hostages taken at the resort, spoke on RMN radio periodically early Saturday, asking the government to halt its offensive.
"We are with the suicide squad of the Abu Sayyaf. There are many innocent lives who have nothing to do with the situation and they are at risk. Please, please ... find another solution and not a military solution," Ganzon said.
Two of the Americans seized at the resort, Martin and Gracia Burnham of Wichita, Kan., are Protestant missionaries who have lived in the Philippines since 1986. The third American was identified as Guillermo Sobero of Corona, Calif.
The Abu Sayyaf, which claims to be fighting for a separate Muslim state, seized 10 foreign tourists about a year ago from a Malaysian resort, and most were released for millions of dollars in ransom. Philippine President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo has pledged to defeat the rebels.
_____________________________________________________________________
June 2, 2001, AP, 4:58 PM, Military Clashes With Kidnapper, by Jim Gomez,
Saturday
By JIM GOMEZ, Associated Press Writer
LAMITAN, Philippines (AP) - Philippine forces lay siege to a hospital where dozens of Muslim extremists were holed up with captives Saturday, blanketing the building with rockets and machine-gun fire in a bid to end a hostage crisis that has ballooned into a major battle on a rugged southern island.
In one attack, at least two helicopter gunships fired at the hospital nonstop for half an hour as ground troops targeted the building from surrounding streets. Witnesses said at least one of the hostages inside was an American.
Officials said about 40 Abu Sayyaf rebels were holding doctors and patients in the hospital on Basilan island, along with some of the 20 hostages - three of them Americans - that members of the extremist group seized Sunday at a resort hundreds of miles away across the Sulu Sea.
The rebels eluded a massive search until they clashed with army forces in the rugged jungles of Basilan early Friday. The fighting then spread to the streets of Lamitan, and the military said six soldiers were killed and 41 wounded in two days of clashes. Witnesses also saw guerrilla and civilian casualties.
Basilan provincial Gov. Wahad Akbar said four of the 17 Filipino hostages from the resort, including an 8-year-old boy, escaped. At least one escaped hostage was injured and was evacuated. The whereabouts of at least two of three American hostages was unclear.
An Abu Sayyaf leader, Abu Suleiman, claimed he took 200 hostages in Lamitan, which was sealed off by troops, but the military said only 20 were seized, including priests, patients and doctors in the hospital, which houses a church in the same building.
Police tried to storm the one-story building at least three times Saturday, but were pushed back amid heavy gunfire. Several armored personnel carriers were standing by for another possible assault. The condition of the hostages was not clear.
Rolly Adars, a 37-year-old Lamitan resident who was in the hospital when the Abu Sayyaf rebels seized it, said he escaped out a door along with six children. He said he saw one tall American man, guarded by guerrillas with rifles and grenade launchers, in the hospital.
Suleiman phoned RMN radio to say he that had taken control of the hospital and threatened to kill hostages unless the government called off its offensive. Mayor Inocente Ramos cited sketchy reports that the rebels have 13 hostages in the hospital.
It was not clear whether the rebel gunmen in Lamitan were the same ones who raided the Dos Palmas Island Resort on Palawan island on Sunday. As of late Friday, that group was fighting soldiers in dense jungle near Lamitan, about 350 miles southeast of Palawan and 560 miles south of the capital, Manila.
National Security Adviser Roilo Golez said troops quickly surrounded the area and had the guerrillas trapped in the hospital.
At midday, between the assaults, gunfire eased in a tense standoff as a helicopter hovered over the hospital.
Residents scurried around side streets, bending low to avoid sniper fire, while police and soldiers hid behind cover around the bullet-scarred hospital. Thousands of civilians fled the fighting, clogging roads leading out of Lamitan.
Cindy Balisado, 28, who owns a restaurant a block from the hospital, refused to evacuate the town and cheered the police on. Lamitan, the second largest town in the province of Basilan, is one of two Christian towns on the predominantly Muslim island.
"I hope they kill them all," Basilado said. "I am not afraid. If you get frightened you will just give in to what the (Abu Sayyaf) want."
She said fighting broke out around midnight Friday and continued intensely for two hours, then erupted again after a brief pause. A grenade exploded on her roof but caused no injuries, she said.
Bidong Ismael, a town councilor, told RMN that he saw one Abu Sayyaf leader, Commander Yusuf, killed along with one soldier and a militiaman in Lamitan.
Less than six miles away, soldiers fought in rugged jungle with an estimated 100-man contingent of the Abu Sayyaf, military officials said.
Teresa Ganzon, one of the hostages taken at the resort, spoke on RMN radio periodically early Saturday, asking the government to halt its offensive.
"We are with the suicide squad of the Abu Sayyaf. There are many innocent lives who have nothing to do with the situation and they are at risk. Please, please ... find another solution and not a military solution," Ganzon said.
Two of the Americans seized at the resort, Martin and Gracia Burnham of Wichita, Kan., are Protestant missionaries who have lived in the Philippines since 1986. The third American was identified as Guillermo Sobero of Corona, Calif.
The Abu Sayyaf, which claims to be fighting for a separate Muslim state, seized 10 foreign tourists about a year ago from a Malaysian resort, and most were released for millions of dollars in ransom. Philippine President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo has pledged to defeat the rebels.
____________________________________________________________________
June 2, 2001, AFP, 4:58 PM, Negotiations underway to end mass kidnap stand off: military,
Saturday
MANILA, June 2 (AFP)
Negotiations were underway Saturday to resolve a standoff at a hospital in the southern Philippines where Muslim kidnappers are holding about 200 people hostage, a military spokesman said.
"The negotiations and military action go hand in hand... these are not two separate actions," Brigadier General Edilberto Adan told a news conference as soldiers battled the rebels holed up at Fe Torres Memorial private hospital in the town of Lamitan on Basilan island.
"There are no reports as to how many patients or hospital staff are now inside but what we know it is now ringed by our troops and negotiations... are now now taking place so that this standoff will be resolved."
Adan said an emissary had been dispatched by President Gloria Arroyo but declined to identify the person.
The presidential palace on Friday confirmed it had sent an emissary to the Abu Sayyaf but only to negotiate surrender and the safe release of the 20 hostages, seized from a high-end resort in the western island of Palawan last Sunday.
Manila has firmly maintained its no-ransom policy.
The rebels eluded a military pursuit after taking the hostages and fled from Palawan to their stronghold in the island of Basilan, where they seized more hostages from a church and hospital.
The rebels said they had taken about 200 more hostages and threatened to blow up the buildings along with the hostages, mostly hospital patients, if the military continued its assault against the rebels, Abu Sayyaf spokesman Abu Sabaya told Radio Mindanao Network (RMN).
An Abu Sayyaf suicide squad "is now in control of a church and hospital with around 200 hostages," spokesman Abu Sabaya told the station in the southern city of Zamboanga.
"Now if the military will not stop the operation, we might be forced to execute our hostages," he warned, as the sound of gunfire reverberated in the background.
Adan warned tandem negotiations and military operations could be a drawn-out process.
"In operations like this, the main consideration is the safe deliverance of the hostages. It will be a waiting game. The pressure has to be maintained so that the hostages will be released," he said.
"The military action, the cordoning, the maneuvers of our troops go hand in hand with the negotiations. These are not two separate activities or operations."
Six soldiers have been killed and 41 others injured during the military assault against the Abu Sayyaf in Basilan since Friday, another armed forces spokesman said in southern Zamboanga city.
______________________________________________________________
June 2, 2001, AP, 4:57 PM, Military Clashes With Kidnapper, by Jim Gomez,
Lapinid told reporters in nearby Zamboanga city, the headquarters of the southern command, that four soldiers were killed and 12 wounded in the fighting. Another spokesman said the body of an Abu Sayyaf gunman was also recovered.
Rose Tamayo, a correspondent for the Pilipino Star newspaper, said she counted 12 bodies at the Lamitan Municipal Hospital but could not tell if they were of civilians, rebels or soldiers.
Dozens of others with bullet wounds were being treated, she said.
Lamitan, a mainly Christian town of about 100,000 people, was badly scarred by the fighting. One school was burned down and bullet-marks pocked the fronts of many houses.
Thousands of residents fled the town, taking ferries to safer parts of Basilan.
"This is affecting our lives too much. We're evacuating without money," Hadja Nhena said while carrying belongings and pulling her four children through the streets.
A spokesman for the Abu Sayyaf guerrillas said in a telephone call to a local radio station that the group would execute hostages if the military did not pull back.
"We are part of an Abu Sayyaf suicide squad," spokesman Abu Sulaiman told the radio. "Now we have 200 more hostages. If you do not stop the military action, we will execute the hostages."
NO BACKING DOWN
But the government refused to back down. ``We shall pursue these policies until we annihilate the Abu Sayyaf terrorists, capture them or force them to surrender,'' said spokesman Rigoberto Tiglao.
President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo (news - web sites) has driven the policy, vowing there will be no compromise with the rebels.
Basilan is a mountainous, heavily forested island and its jungle-clad hills have long provided base camps for the Abu Sayyaf, which claims to be fighting for an independent Muslim homeland but appears to concentrate on kidnap for ransom.
Lamitan, a bustling market town, is on its northern coast, slightly inland but connected to the sea by an estuary.
After six days of searching for the rebel gang across scores of islands and the seas in the archipelago, troops finally engaged them in thickly forested brush some six km (four miles) outside Lamitan on Friday.
The guerrillas lost some men but managed to escape toward Lamitan overnight, apparently in a search for medicine and treatment for wounded colleagues.
_____________________________________________________________________
June 2, 2001, AFP, 5:47 PM, Chronology of Philippines hostage crisis,
Saturday
MANILA, June 2 (AFP) -
A chronology of the Abu Sayyaf guerrilla group and the latest hostage crisis:
Early 1990s: Libyan-trained Islamic preacher Abdurajak Janjalani forms the Abu Sayyaf (Bearer of the Sword), finding common cause with young Muslim radicals disaffected by the older generation of Muslim separatist leaders in the southern Philippines.
The group adopts a fundamentalist ideology, bombs churches and kidnaps Christian missionaries in the south.
January 12, 1995: Abu Sayyaf is implicated in a plot to assassinate visiting Pope John Paul II. One of the alleged foreign assassins is arrested in Manila and later extradited to the United States.
April 4, 1995: Abu Sayyaf rebels raid the mainly Christian southern town of Ipil, killing 53 people and burning the town center.
December 18, 1998: Abu Sayyaf founder Abdurajak Janjalani is killed in a firefight with security forces in the southern island of Basilan. He is replaced by his younger brother, Khadaffy Janjalani.
April 23, 2000: Abu Sayyaf gunmen raid the Malaysian diving resort of Sipadan, off Borneo, and flee across the sea border to their Jolo island stronghold with 10 Western tourists and 11 Asian resort workers.
Several Western journalists covering the hostage crisis and Filipino preachers who go to mediate are also abducted.
August 27: Jolo kidnappers free most of their Western captives, after the reported payment of large ransoms.
August 28: American Jeffrey Schilling is abducted during a visit to Janjalani's camp.
September 9: Guerrillas free a number of European captives.
September 16: President Joseph Estrada launches a military assault in Jolo. Two kidnapped French journalists escape during the fighting.
January 20, 2001: Estrada is toppled in a popular uprising; Vice President Gloria Arroyo takes over and vows to get tough against the Abu Sayyaf.
April 12: US hostage Schilling is rescued, leaving only Filipino scuba diving instructor Roland Ullah in the gunmen's hands.
May 27: Abu Sayyaf gunmen raid the Dos Palmas resort off the western Philippine island of Palawan and seize 20 hostages, including three Americans: missionary couple Martin and Gracia Burnham from Kansas and Californian Guillermo Sobrero. Arroyo rules out ransom and unleashes the military against the kidnappers.
June 1: Clashes erupt between government troops and the kidnappers who are spotted in Tuburan town in Basilan island, some 480 kilometers (about 300 miles) from Palawan.
June 2: An Abu Sayyaf "suicide squad" take over a hospital and church in Lamitan, the second largest town in Basilan, holding as many as 200 hostages. Four of the hostages from the Palawan resort are recovered in Lamitan.
_____________________________________________________________________
Military Clashes With Kidnappers (AP) 5:17 PM
LAMITAN, Philippines (AP) - Philippine forces lay siege to a hospital where dozens of Muslim extremists were holed up with captives Saturday, blanketing the building with rockets and machine-gun fire in a bid to end a hostage crisis that has ballooned into a major battle on a rugged southern island.
__________________________________________________________
June 2, 2001, AP, 5:15 PM, Military Clashes With Kidnappers, by Jim Gomez,
[Posted Saturday June 2 5:15 AM ET]
LAMITAN, Philippines (AP) - Philippine forces lay siege to a hospital where dozens of Muslim extremists were holed up with captives Saturday, blanketing the building with rockets and machine-gun fire in a bid to end a hostage crisis that has ballooned into a major battle on a rugged southern island.
In one attack, at least two helicopter gunships fired at the hospital nonstop for half an hour as ground troops targeted the building from surrounding streets. Witnesses said at least one of the hostages inside was an American.
Officials said about 40 Abu Sayyaf rebels were holding doctors and patients in the hospital on Basilan island, along with some of the 20 hostages - three of them Americans - that members of the extremist group seized Sunday at a resort hundreds of miles away across the Sulu Sea.
"It appears we have encountered the main body of bandits," said Brig. Gen. Edilberto Adan, a military spokesman. "This is the scenario we wanted - to fix them in one location. We have now ringed the place."
The rebels eluded a massive search until they clashed with army forces in the rugged jungles of Basilan early Friday. The fighting then spread to the streets of Lamitan, and the military said six soldiers were killed and 41 wounded in two days of clashes. Witnesses also saw guerrilla and civilian casualties.
Basilan provincial Gov. Wahad Akbar said four of the 17 Filipino hostages from the resort, including an 8-year-old boy, escaped. At least one escaped hostage was injured and was evacuated. The whereabouts of at least two of three American hostages was unclear.
An Abu Sayyaf leader, Abu Suleiman, claimed he took 200 hostages in Lamitan, which was sealed off by troops, but the military said only 20 were seized, including priests, patients and doctors in the hospital, which houses a church in the same building.
Police tried to storm the one-story building at least three times Saturday, but were pushed back amid heavy gunfire. Several armored personnel carriers were standing by for another possible assault. The condition of the hostages was not clear.
Rolly Adars, a 37-year-old Lamitan resident who was in the hospital when the Abu Sayyaf rebels seized it, said he escaped out a door along with six children. He said he saw one tall American man, guarded by guerrillas with rifles and grenade launchers, in the hospital.
Suleiman phoned RMN radio to say he that had taken control of the hospital and threatened to kill hostages unless the government called off its offensive. Mayor Inocente Ramos cited sketchy reports that the rebels have 13 hostages in the hospital.
It was not clear whether the rebel gunmen in Lamitan were the same ones who raided the Dos Palmas Island Resort on Palawan island on Sunday. As of late Friday, that group was fighting soldiers in dense jungle near Lamitan, about 350 miles southeast of Palawan and 560 miles south of the capital, Manila.
National Security Adviser Roilo Golez said troops quickly surrounded the area and had the guerrillas trapped in the hospital.
At midday, between the assaults, gunfire eased in a tense standoff as a helicopter hovered over the hospital.
Residents scurried around side streets, bending low to avoid sniper fire, while police and soldiers hid behind cover around the bullet-scarred hospital. Thousands of civilians fled the fighting, clogging roads leading out of Lamitan.
Cindy Balisado, 28, who owns a restaurant a block from the hospital, refused to evacuate the town and cheered the police on. Lamitan, the second largest town in the province of Basilan, is one of two Christian towns on the predominantly Muslim island.
"I hope they kill them all," Basilado said. "I am not afraid. If you get frightened you will just give in to what the (Abu Sayyaf) want."
She said fighting broke out around midnight Friday and continued intensely for two hours, then erupted again after a brief pause. A grenade exploded on her roof but caused no injuries, she said.
Bidong Ismael, a town councilor, told RMN that he saw one Abu Sayyaf leader, Commander Yusuf, killed along with one soldier and a militiaman in Lamitan.
Teresa Ganzon, one of the hostages taken at the resort, spoke on RMN radio periodically early Saturday, asking the government to halt its offensive.
"We are with the suicide squad of the Abu Sayyaf. There are many innocent lives who have nothing to do with the situation and they are at risk. Please, please ... find another solution and not a military solution," Ganzon said.
Two of the Americans seized at the resort, Martin and Gracia Burnham of Wichita, Kan., are Protestant missionaries who have lived in the Philippines since 1986. The third American was identified as Guillermo Sobero of Corona, Calif.
The Abu Sayyaf, which claims to be fighting for a separate Muslim state, seized 10 foreign tourists about a year ago from a Malaysian resort, and most were released for millions of dollars in ransom. Philippine President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo has pledged to defeat the rebels.
_____________________________________________________________________
June 2, 2001, AP, 4:58 PM, Military Clashes With Kidnapper, by Jim Gomez,
Saturday
By JIM GOMEZ, Associated Press Writer
LAMITAN, Philippines (AP) - Philippine forces lay siege to a hospital where dozens of Muslim extremists were holed up with captives Saturday, blanketing the building with rockets and machine-gun fire in a bid to end a hostage crisis that has ballooned into a major battle on a rugged southern island.
In one attack, at least two helicopter gunships fired at the hospital nonstop for half an hour as ground troops targeted the building from surrounding streets. Witnesses said at least one of the hostages inside was an American.
Officials said about 40 Abu Sayyaf rebels were holding doctors and patients in the hospital on Basilan island, along with some of the 20 hostages - three of them Americans - that members of the extremist group seized Sunday at a resort hundreds of miles away across the Sulu Sea.
The rebels eluded a massive search until they clashed with army forces in the rugged jungles of Basilan early Friday. The fighting then spread to the streets of Lamitan, and the military said six soldiers were killed and 41 wounded in two days of clashes. Witnesses also saw guerrilla and civilian casualties.
Basilan provincial Gov. Wahad Akbar said four of the 17 Filipino hostages from the resort, including an 8-year-old boy, escaped. At least one escaped hostage was injured and was evacuated. The whereabouts of at least two of three American hostages was unclear.
An Abu Sayyaf leader, Abu Suleiman, claimed he took 200 hostages in Lamitan, which was sealed off by troops, but the military said only 20 were seized, including priests, patients and doctors in the hospital, which houses a church in the same building.
Police tried to storm the one-story building at least three times Saturday, but were pushed back amid heavy gunfire. Several armored personnel carriers were standing by for another possible assault. The condition of the hostages was not clear.
Rolly Adars, a 37-year-old Lamitan resident who was in the hospital when the Abu Sayyaf rebels seized it, said he escaped out a door along with six children. He said he saw one tall American man, guarded by guerrillas with rifles and grenade launchers, in the hospital.
Suleiman phoned RMN radio to say he that had taken control of the hospital and threatened to kill hostages unless the government called off its offensive. Mayor Inocente Ramos cited sketchy reports that the rebels have 13 hostages in the hospital.
It was not clear whether the rebel gunmen in Lamitan were the same ones who raided the Dos Palmas Island Resort on Palawan island on Sunday. As of late Friday, that group was fighting soldiers in dense jungle near Lamitan, about 350 miles southeast of Palawan and 560 miles south of the capital, Manila.
National Security Adviser Roilo Golez said troops quickly surrounded the area and had the guerrillas trapped in the hospital.
At midday, between the assaults, gunfire eased in a tense standoff as a helicopter hovered over the hospital.
Residents scurried around side streets, bending low to avoid sniper fire, while police and soldiers hid behind cover around the bullet-scarred hospital. Thousands of civilians fled the fighting, clogging roads leading out of Lamitan.
Cindy Balisado, 28, who owns a restaurant a block from the hospital, refused to evacuate the town and cheered the police on. Lamitan, the second largest town in the province of Basilan, is one of two Christian towns on the predominantly Muslim island.
"I hope they kill them all," Basilado said. "I am not afraid. If you get frightened you will just give in to what the (Abu Sayyaf) want."
She said fighting broke out around midnight Friday and continued intensely for two hours, then erupted again after a brief pause. A grenade exploded on her roof but caused no injuries, she said.
Bidong Ismael, a town councilor, told RMN that he saw one Abu Sayyaf leader, Commander Yusuf, killed along with one soldier and a militiaman in Lamitan.
Less than six miles away, soldiers fought in rugged jungle with an estimated 100-man contingent of the Abu Sayyaf, military officials said.
Teresa Ganzon, one of the hostages taken at the resort, spoke on RMN radio periodically early Saturday, asking the government to halt its offensive.
"We are with the suicide squad of the Abu Sayyaf. There are many innocent lives who have nothing to do with the situation and they are at risk. Please, please ... find another solution and not a military solution," Ganzon said.
Two of the Americans seized at the resort, Martin and Gracia Burnham of Wichita, Kan., are Protestant missionaries who have lived in the Philippines since 1986. The third American was identified as Guillermo Sobero of Corona, Calif.
The Abu Sayyaf, which claims to be fighting for a separate Muslim state, seized 10 foreign tourists about a year ago from a Malaysian resort, and most were released for millions of dollars in ransom. Philippine President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo has pledged to defeat the rebels.
____________________________________________________________________
June 2, 2001, AFP, 4:58 PM, Negotiations underway to end mass kidnap stand off: military,
Saturday
MANILA, June 2 (AFP)
Negotiations were underway Saturday to resolve a standoff at a hospital in the southern Philippines where Muslim kidnappers are holding about 200 people hostage, a military spokesman said.
"The negotiations and military action go hand in hand... these are not two separate actions," Brigadier General Edilberto Adan told a news conference as soldiers battled the rebels holed up at Fe Torres Memorial private hospital in the town of Lamitan on Basilan island.
"There are no reports as to how many patients or hospital staff are now inside but what we know it is now ringed by our troops and negotiations... are now now taking place so that this standoff will be resolved."
Adan said an emissary had been dispatched by President Gloria Arroyo but declined to identify the person.
The presidential palace on Friday confirmed it had sent an emissary to the Abu Sayyaf but only to negotiate surrender and the safe release of the 20 hostages, seized from a high-end resort in the western island of Palawan last Sunday.
Manila has firmly maintained its no-ransom policy.
The rebels eluded a military pursuit after taking the hostages and fled from Palawan to their stronghold in the island of Basilan, where they seized more hostages from a church and hospital.
The rebels said they had taken about 200 more hostages and threatened to blow up the buildings along with the hostages, mostly hospital patients, if the military continued its assault against the rebels, Abu Sayyaf spokesman Abu Sabaya told Radio Mindanao Network (RMN).
An Abu Sayyaf suicide squad "is now in control of a church and hospital with around 200 hostages," spokesman Abu Sabaya told the station in the southern city of Zamboanga.
"Now if the military will not stop the operation, we might be forced to execute our hostages," he warned, as the sound of gunfire reverberated in the background.
Adan warned tandem negotiations and military operations could be a drawn-out process.
"In operations like this, the main consideration is the safe deliverance of the hostages. It will be a waiting game. The pressure has to be maintained so that the hostages will be released," he said.
"The military action, the cordoning, the maneuvers of our troops go hand in hand with the negotiations. These are not two separate activities or operations."
Six soldiers have been killed and 41 others injured during the military assault against the Abu Sayyaf in Basilan since Friday, another armed forces spokesman said in southern Zamboanga city.
______________________________________________________________
June 2, 2001, AP, 4:57 PM, Military Clashes With Kidnapper, by Jim Gomez,
[Posted Saturday June 2 4:57 AM ET]
LAMITAN, Philippines (AP) - Philippine forces lay siege to a hospital where dozens of Muslim extremists were holed up with captives Saturday, blanketing the building with rockets and machine-gun fire in a bid to end a hostage crisis that has ballooned into a major battle on a rugged southern island.
In one attack, at least two helicopter gunships fired at the hospital nonstop for half an hour as ground troops targeted the building from surrounding streets. Witnesses said at least one of the hostages inside was an American.
Officials said about 40 Abu Sayyaf rebels were holding doctors and patients in the hospital on Basilan island, along with some of the 20 hostages - three of them Americans - that members of the extremist group seized Sunday at a resort hundreds of miles away across the Sulu Sea.
The rebels eluded a massive search until they clashed with army forces in the rugged jungles of Basilan early Friday. The fighting then spread to the streets of Lamitan, and the military said six soldiers were killed and 41 wounded in two days of clashes. Witnesses also saw guerrilla and civilian casualties.
Basilan provincial Gov. Wahad Akbar said four of the 17 Filipino hostages from the resort, including an 8-year-old boy, escaped. At least one escaped hostage was injured and was evacuated. The whereabouts of at least two of three American hostages was unclear.
An Abu Sayyaf leader, Abu Suleiman, claimed he took 200 hostages in Lamitan, which was sealed off by troops, but the military said only 20 were seized, including priests, patients and doctors in the hospital, which houses a church in the same building.
Police tried to storm the one-story building at least three times Saturday, but were pushed back amid heavy gunfire. Several armored personnel carriers were standing by for another possible assault. The condition of the hostages was not clear.
Rolly Adars, a 37-year-old Lamitan resident who was in the hospital when the Abu Sayyaf rebels seized it, said he escaped out a door along with six children. He said he saw one tall American man, guarded by guerrillas with rifles and grenade launchers, in the hospital.
Suleiman phoned RMN radio to say he that had taken control of the hospital and threatened to kill hostages unless the government called off its offensive. Mayor Inocente Ramos cited sketchy reports that the rebels have 13 hostages in the hospital.
It was not clear whether the rebel gunmen in Lamitan were the same ones who raided the Dos Palmas Island Resort on Palawan island on Sunday. As of late Friday, that group was fighting soldiers in dense jungle near Lamitan, about 350 miles southeast of Palawan and 560 miles south of the capital, Manila.
National Security Adviser Roilo Golez said troops quickly surrounded the area and had the guerrillas trapped in the hospital.
At midday, between the assaults, gunfire eased in a tense standoff as a helicopter hovered over the hospital.
Residents scurried around side streets, bending low to avoid sniper fire, while police and soldiers hid behind cover around the bullet-scarred hospital. Thousands of civilians fled the fighting, clogging roads leading out of Lamitan.
Cindy Balisado, 28, who owns a restaurant a block from the hospital, refused to evacuate the town and cheered the police on. Lamitan, the second largest town in the province of Basilan, is one of two Christian towns on the predominantly Muslim island.
"I hope they kill them all," Basilado said. "I am not afraid. If you get frightened you will just give in to what the (Abu Sayyaf) want."
She said fighting broke out around midnight Friday and continued intensely for two hours, then erupted again after a brief pause. A grenade exploded on her roof but caused no injuries, she said.
Bidong Ismael, a town councilor, told RMN that he saw one Abu Sayyaf leader, Commander Yusuf, killed along with one soldier and a militiaman in Lamitan.
Less than six miles away, soldiers fought in rugged jungle with an estimated 100-man contingent of the Abu Sayyaf, military officials said.
Teresa Ganzon, one of the hostages taken at the resort, spoke on RMN radio periodically early Saturday, asking the government to halt its offensive.
"We are with the suicide squad of the Abu Sayyaf. There are many innocent lives who have nothing to do with the situation and they are at risk. Please, please ... find another solution and not a military solution," Ganzon said.
Two of the Americans seized at the resort, Martin and Gracia Burnham of Wichita, Kan., are Protestant missionaries who have lived in the Philippines since 1986. The third American was identified as Guillermo Sobero of Corona, Calif.
The Abu Sayyaf, which claims to be fighting for a separate Muslim state, seized 10 foreign tourists about a year ago from a Malaysian resort, and most were released for millions of dollars in ransom. Philippine President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo has pledged to defeat the rebels.
__________________________________________________________________
June 2, 2001, AFP, 4:04 PM, Negotiations taking place to end mass kidnap stand off: military,
Saturday
MANILA, June 2 (AFP)
Negotiations were underway Saturday to resolve a bloody standoff at a hospital in the southern Philippines where Muslim kidnappers are reportedly holding about 200 people hostage, a military spokesman said.
"The negotiations and military action go hand in hand ... These are not two separate actions," Brigadier General Edilberto Adan told a news conference as soldiers battled the rebels holed up at Fe Torres Memorial private hospital in the town of Lamitan on Basilan island.
____________________________________________________________________
June 2, 2001, Reuters, 4:00 PM, Four Philippine Hostages Escape, 200 Still Trapped, by Erik de Castro,
[Posted Saturday June 2 4:00 AM ET]
LAMITAN, Philippines (Reuters) - Up to 200 people were trapped as Philippine military helicopters fired rockets and troops kept up a barrage of gunfire on a hospital and a church taken over by Muslim rebels in the south on Saturday, officials said.
But at least four Filipinos kidnapped by the guerrillas last Sunday from an island resort managed to escape in the confusion.
There was no confirmed news on the whereabouts of the other 16 people kidnapped at the time, who include three Americans, but they are also believed to be trapped in the hospital in the town of Lamitan on Basilan island.
Residents said more than a dozen people were killed, including many civilians caught in the crossfire, but the military said they could only confirm four soldiers and one rebel dead.
Some 50 Abu Sayyaf rebels, fleeing from troops along with their hostages, rampaged through Lamitan, 900 km (550 miles) south of Manila, before dawn and took over a church and the town's main hospital.
They claimed they had captured an additional 200 people, including doctors, patients and a priest.
Troops fired mortars and steady gunfire at the rebel positions and then sent in helicopter gunships to take out guerrilla snipers who were perched in the belfry of the St. Peters Church and on the roof of the adjoining hospital.
Three Filipino tourists, including an eight-year-old boy, and a hotel security guard kidnapped last week managed to escape along with some of those captured in Lamitan earlier in the day.
"One kind Abu Sayyaf allowed me to run away," said Joey Candido, who was taken captive in the hospital.
LAMITAN, Philippines (AP) - Philippine forces lay siege to a hospital where dozens of Muslim extremists were holed up with captives Saturday, blanketing the building with rockets and machine-gun fire in a bid to end a hostage crisis that has ballooned into a major battle on a rugged southern island.
In one attack, at least two helicopter gunships fired at the hospital nonstop for half an hour as ground troops targeted the building from surrounding streets. Witnesses said at least one of the hostages inside was an American.
Officials said about 40 Abu Sayyaf rebels were holding doctors and patients in the hospital on Basilan island, along with some of the 20 hostages - three of them Americans - that members of the extremist group seized Sunday at a resort hundreds of miles away across the Sulu Sea.
The rebels eluded a massive search until they clashed with army forces in the rugged jungles of Basilan early Friday. The fighting then spread to the streets of Lamitan, and the military said six soldiers were killed and 41 wounded in two days of clashes. Witnesses also saw guerrilla and civilian casualties.
Basilan provincial Gov. Wahad Akbar said four of the 17 Filipino hostages from the resort, including an 8-year-old boy, escaped. At least one escaped hostage was injured and was evacuated. The whereabouts of at least two of three American hostages was unclear.
An Abu Sayyaf leader, Abu Suleiman, claimed he took 200 hostages in Lamitan, which was sealed off by troops, but the military said only 20 were seized, including priests, patients and doctors in the hospital, which houses a church in the same building.
Police tried to storm the one-story building at least three times Saturday, but were pushed back amid heavy gunfire. Several armored personnel carriers were standing by for another possible assault. The condition of the hostages was not clear.
Rolly Adars, a 37-year-old Lamitan resident who was in the hospital when the Abu Sayyaf rebels seized it, said he escaped out a door along with six children. He said he saw one tall American man, guarded by guerrillas with rifles and grenade launchers, in the hospital.
Suleiman phoned RMN radio to say he that had taken control of the hospital and threatened to kill hostages unless the government called off its offensive. Mayor Inocente Ramos cited sketchy reports that the rebels have 13 hostages in the hospital.
It was not clear whether the rebel gunmen in Lamitan were the same ones who raided the Dos Palmas Island Resort on Palawan island on Sunday. As of late Friday, that group was fighting soldiers in dense jungle near Lamitan, about 350 miles southeast of Palawan and 560 miles south of the capital, Manila.
National Security Adviser Roilo Golez said troops quickly surrounded the area and had the guerrillas trapped in the hospital.
At midday, between the assaults, gunfire eased in a tense standoff as a helicopter hovered over the hospital.
Residents scurried around side streets, bending low to avoid sniper fire, while police and soldiers hid behind cover around the bullet-scarred hospital. Thousands of civilians fled the fighting, clogging roads leading out of Lamitan.
Cindy Balisado, 28, who owns a restaurant a block from the hospital, refused to evacuate the town and cheered the police on. Lamitan, the second largest town in the province of Basilan, is one of two Christian towns on the predominantly Muslim island.
"I hope they kill them all," Basilado said. "I am not afraid. If you get frightened you will just give in to what the (Abu Sayyaf) want."
She said fighting broke out around midnight Friday and continued intensely for two hours, then erupted again after a brief pause. A grenade exploded on her roof but caused no injuries, she said.
Bidong Ismael, a town councilor, told RMN that he saw one Abu Sayyaf leader, Commander Yusuf, killed along with one soldier and a militiaman in Lamitan.
Less than six miles away, soldiers fought in rugged jungle with an estimated 100-man contingent of the Abu Sayyaf, military officials said.
Teresa Ganzon, one of the hostages taken at the resort, spoke on RMN radio periodically early Saturday, asking the government to halt its offensive.
"We are with the suicide squad of the Abu Sayyaf. There are many innocent lives who have nothing to do with the situation and they are at risk. Please, please ... find another solution and not a military solution," Ganzon said.
Two of the Americans seized at the resort, Martin and Gracia Burnham of Wichita, Kan., are Protestant missionaries who have lived in the Philippines since 1986. The third American was identified as Guillermo Sobero of Corona, Calif.
The Abu Sayyaf, which claims to be fighting for a separate Muslim state, seized 10 foreign tourists about a year ago from a Malaysian resort, and most were released for millions of dollars in ransom. Philippine President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo has pledged to defeat the rebels.
__________________________________________________________________
June 2, 2001, AFP, 4:04 PM, Negotiations taking place to end mass kidnap stand off: military,
Saturday
MANILA, June 2 (AFP)
Negotiations were underway Saturday to resolve a bloody standoff at a hospital in the southern Philippines where Muslim kidnappers are reportedly holding about 200 people hostage, a military spokesman said.
"The negotiations and military action go hand in hand ... These are not two separate actions," Brigadier General Edilberto Adan told a news conference as soldiers battled the rebels holed up at Fe Torres Memorial private hospital in the town of Lamitan on Basilan island.
____________________________________________________________________
June 2, 2001, Reuters, 4:00 PM, Four Philippine Hostages Escape, 200 Still Trapped, by Erik de Castro,
[Posted Saturday June 2 4:00 AM ET]
LAMITAN, Philippines (Reuters) - Up to 200 people were trapped as Philippine military helicopters fired rockets and troops kept up a barrage of gunfire on a hospital and a church taken over by Muslim rebels in the south on Saturday, officials said.
But at least four Filipinos kidnapped by the guerrillas last Sunday from an island resort managed to escape in the confusion.
There was no confirmed news on the whereabouts of the other 16 people kidnapped at the time, who include three Americans, but they are also believed to be trapped in the hospital in the town of Lamitan on Basilan island.
Residents said more than a dozen people were killed, including many civilians caught in the crossfire, but the military said they could only confirm four soldiers and one rebel dead.
Some 50 Abu Sayyaf rebels, fleeing from troops along with their hostages, rampaged through Lamitan, 900 km (550 miles) south of Manila, before dawn and took over a church and the town's main hospital.
They claimed they had captured an additional 200 people, including doctors, patients and a priest.
Troops fired mortars and steady gunfire at the rebel positions and then sent in helicopter gunships to take out guerrilla snipers who were perched in the belfry of the St. Peters Church and on the roof of the adjoining hospital.
Three Filipino tourists, including an eight-year-old boy, and a hotel security guard kidnapped last week managed to escape along with some of those captured in Lamitan earlier in the day.
"One kind Abu Sayyaf allowed me to run away," said Joey Candido, who was taken captive in the hospital.
"I saw two Americans inside hugging each other in fright."
DOZEN BODIES IN HOSPITAL
Military spokesman Colonel Horacio Lapinid told reporters in nearby Zamboanga city, the headquarters of the southern command, that four soldiers were killed and 12 wounded in the fighting. Another spokesman said the body of an Abu Sayyaf gunman was also recovered.
Rose Tamayo, a correspondent for the Pilipino Star newspaper, said she counted 12 bodies at the Lamitan Municipal Hospital, but could not tell if they were of civilians, rebels or soldiers.
Dozens of others with bullet injuries were being treated, she said.
Late into the afternoon, gunfire continued to rip through the mainly Christian town of about 100,000 people, some 12 hours after the guerrillas swarmed through. The fighting was centerd on the compound where both the church and the hospital are located.
One school was burned down in the fighting and bullet-marks pocked the fronts of many houses.
Thosuands of Lamitan residents fled the town, taking ferries to safer parts of Basilan.
"This is affecting our lives too much. We're evacuating without money," Hadja Nhena said while carrying belongings and pulling her four children through the streets.
A spokesman for the Abu Sayyaf guerrillas said in a telephone call to a local radio station that the group controlled a church in Lamitan and its main hospital.
"We are part of an Abu Sayyaf suicide squad," spokesman Abu Sulaiman told the radio. "Now we have 200 more hostages. If you do not stop the military action, we will execute the hostages."
BUSTLING MARKET TOWN
Basilan is a mountainous, heavily forested island and its jungle-clad hills have long provided base camps for the Abu Sayyaf, which claims to be fighting for an independent Muslim homeland but appears to concentrate on kidnap for ransom.
Lamitan, a bustling market town, is on its northern coast, slightly inland but connected to the sea by an estuary.
Earlier, one of the hostages appealed on local radio for an end to the military assault, saying that the hostages' lives were in danger.
"Please tell the government not to use the military to solve this problem," hostage Teresa Ganzon told the radio station.
While welcoming the news of hostage escapes, the government reiterated it would not stop military operations against the Muslim rebels and would only negotiate for an unconditional release of the captives.
"We cannot stop the operations. This is what's needed. It is important to keep up the pressure by the military. We cannot let up on the military operations," presidential spokesman Rigoberto Tiglao told Manila radio station dzRM.
______________________________________________________________________
June 2, 2001, Reuters, 1:45 PM, Four Philippine hostages escape from guerrillas' grip, By Erik de Castro,
Saturday
Photo Gallery
Reuters Photo
LAMITAN, Philippines (Reuters) - Four hostages held by Muslim rebels in the southern Philippines escaped on Saturday during a military strike on guerrilla positions, officials said.
The hostages, three Filipino tourists, including an eight-year-old boy, and a resort security guard, were among the 20 people kidnapped by Abu Sayyaf rebels from an island resort near Palawan last Sunday.
Three Americans are among the remaining hostages held by the rebels, who claimed they have taken 200 more people captive after taking over a church and a hospital on the southern island of Basilan.
Fighting between the rebels and the soldiers erupted in Lamitan, a town on Basilan about 900 km (550 miles) from Manila, after between 50 and 60 rebels raided a hospital looking for medicine and doctors, Philippine armed forces spokesman Brigadier-General Ediberto Adan told reporters.
"As a result of this operation, one hostage taken from Dos Palmas resort was rescued. His name is Eldrin Morales, one of the staff of Dos Palmas resort," Adan said.
Officials said the other three were eight-year-old R.J. Recio, Reghis Romero and Riza Rodriguez Santos.
"One soldier, one Cafgu (Citizens Armed Force Geographical Unit) and one Abu Sayyaf commander -- a certain Commander Yusop -- were killed (in Saturday's operation)," Adan said, adding that the body of Yusop was accounted for by the military.
Adan said there were 25 casualties from Friday's fighting on Basilan.
REBELS CLAIM MORE HOSTAGES
Muslim rebels said they now hold doctors, patients and a priest among their latest captives.
Joey Candido, one of the Lamitan hostages taken in the hospital, told Reuters: "One kind Abu Sayyaf allowed me to run away. I saw two Americans inside hugging each other in fright."
Mortar and gunfire ripped through Lamitan on Friday night. At least one body could be seen on the street in the morning and soldiers slowly advanced through the town to the sound of sporadic gunfire.
A spokesman for the Abu Sayyaf guerrillas said in a telephone call to a local radio station that the group controlled a church in Lamitan and its main hospital.
"We are part of an Abu Sayyaf suicide squad," spokesman Abu Sulaiman told the radio. "Now we have 200 more hostages. If you do not stop the military action, we will execute the hostages."
Basilan is a mountainous, heavily forested island and its jungle-clad hills have long provided base camps for the Abu Sayyaf, which claims to be fighting for an independent Muslim homeland but appears to concentrate on kidnap for ransom.
Local officials in Lamitan, a market town of more than 100,000 people, mostly Christians, said the rebels had taken over St. Peters Church and an adjacent hospital. Guerrilla snipers were in the belfry and on the roof of the hospital, they said.
There was no word on where the remaining resort hostages were. But one of them appealed on local radio for an end to the military assault, saying that the hostages' lives were in danger.
"Please tell the government not to use the military to solve this problem," hostage Teresa Ganzon told the radio station.
MILITARY OPERATION CONTINUES
While welcoming the news of hostage escapes, the government reiterated it would not stop military operations against the Muslim rebels and would only negotiate for an unconditional release of the captives.
"We cannot stop the operations. This is what's needed. It is important to keep up the pressure by the military. We cannot let up on the military operations," Presidential spokesman Rigoberto Tiglao told Manila radio station dzRM.
National Security adviser Roilo Golez also told ANC television channel the government would not pay ransoms and the only negotiation would be for the release of the hostages.
Golez said the church and adjacent hospital was under military control.
"Government forces are surrounding the area to prevent Abu Sayyafs from escaping. We are studying the situation and what should be done," Golez said.
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June 2, 2001, AP, 1:42 PM, Military Clashes With Kidnapper, by Jim Gomez,
[Posted Saturday June 2 1:42 AM ET]
LAMITAN, Philippines (AP) - Government forces fought street battles Saturday against Muslim separatists who took three Americans and 17 others hostage, extending the battle from rugged jungles, officials said. More hostages were taken but some of the original captives fled.
Basilan provincial Gov. Wahad Akbar said four of the 17 Filipino hostages seized at a luxury beach resort Sunday, including an 8-year-old boy, escaped during the chaos. At least one was injured and evacuated. The whereabouts of the three Americans was unclear.
The military said six soldiers were killed during two days of fighting and 41 were wounded. Witnesses also saw guerrilla and civilian casualties.
As many as 60 Abu Sayyaf extremists invaded the town of Lamitan on the southern island of Basilan early Saturday and were waging a battle against troops, said town Mayor Inocente Ramos. Lamitan, about 560 miles south of Manila, is only one of two Christian areas on the predominantly Muslim island.
Abu Suleiman, a leader of the separatists, said a "suicide squad" invaded a hospital and church, seizing patients, doctors and a priest. He claimed the squad was holding 200 new hostages. The military said only 20 newly taken hostages were being held.
National Security Adviser Roilo Golez said troops quickly surrounded the area and had the guerrillas trapped in the hospital.
"Their aim now is to escape with the hostages," Brig. Gen. Edilberto Adan said told reporters Saturday. "We don't think they will invade any other place."
Witnesses said rebels were holding the hospital and church, firing at troops from rooftops. Civilians fleeing the area said at least one building was in flames.
At midday, gunfire around the hospital had slowed to a tense standoff as a helicopter hovered overhead.
Meanwhile, thousands of civilians clogged roads leading out of Lamitan, a city of about 15,000.
"There is heavy fighting and many killed," Ramos told Radio Mindanao Network. "There are big explosions."
Earlier Saturday, in a telephone call to the radio station, Suleiman threatened to kill hostages unless the government called off its offensive. The network reported at least one Abu Sayyaf commander was killed in the hospital siege.
Less than six miles away, soldiers backed by helicopter gunships fought a running battle through rugged jungle with a 100-man contingent of separatists, the military said.
In those clashes, two soldiers, several civilians and some guerrillas were reported dead, and 14 soldiers injured, as the army fought to rescue the hostages seized from the Dos Palmas beach resort in the western Philippines.
It was not clear whether the hostages were with the rebels in Lamitan or in the jungle.
Teresa Ganzon, one of the hostages, spoke on Radio Mindanao for the third time in two days early Saturday, asking the government to halt its offensive.
"We are calling on the military and the government to stop fighting. There are many innocent people with us. Find another solution," she said.
The clashes began just before dawn Friday when a leader of the Abu Sayyaf guerrillas called the radio station claiming two captives had been shot and threatening to kill the rest. There was no confirmation of injuries to the hostages.
Soldiers who pursued the fleeing Abu Sayyaf through the thick undergrowth, where visibility was estimated at only 15 yards, found the bodies of an unspecified number of rebels. Military officials said they believed others had been dragged away.
Military spokesman Brig. Gen. Edilberto Adan said late Friday that the rebels were in a valley about four miles from the shore. Troops were trying to cut off an escape route and surround them.
"The mission is clear: to maintain contact so as to prevent them from escaping. We are not here to disengage. We want to engage," Adan said.
It was unclear how many hostages were being dragged along by the rebels, who earlier claimed they split their captives into at least two groups.
Before the kidnappings, the military had about 1,800 soldiers on Basilan tracking the Abu Sayyaf guerrillas. More troops were being deployed to the island.
Abu Sayyaf gunmen seized the tourists Sunday from the Dos Palmas resort off Palawan Island, on the edge of the Sulu Sea. Basilan is at the sea's southeast corner, 350 miles away.
The Abu Sayyaf, which claims it fights for a separate Muslim state, seized 10 foreign tourists about a year ago from a Malaysian resort, and most were released for ransom.
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June 2, 2001, Reuters, 1:19 PM, Four Philippine Hostages Escape From Rebels' Grip, by Erik de Castro,
[Posted Saturday June 2 1:19 AM ET]
LAMITAN, Philippines (Reuters) - Four hostages held by Muslim rebels in the southern Philippines escaped on Saturday during a military strike on guerrilla positions, officials said.
The hostages, three Filipino tourists, including an eight-year-old boy, and a resort security guard, were among the 20 people kidnapped by Abu Sayyaf rebels from an island resort near Palawan last Sunday.
Three Americans are among the remaining hostages held by the rebels, who claimed they have taken 200 more people captive after taking over a church and a hospital on the southern island of Basilan.
Fighting between the rebels and the soldiers erupted in Lamitan, a town on Basilan about 550 miles from Manila, after between 50 and 60 rebels raided a hospital looking for medicine and doctors, Philippine armed forces spokesman Brigadier-General Ediberto Adan told reporters.
"As a result of this operation, one hostage taken from Dos Palmas resort was rescued. His name is Eldrin Morales, one of the staff of Dos Palmas resort," Adan said.
Officials said the other three were eight-year-old R.J. Recio, Reghis Romero and Riza Rodriguez Santos.
"One soldier, one Cafgu (Citizens Armed Force Geographical Unit) and one Abu Sayyaf commander -- a certain Commander Yusop -- were killed (in Saturday's operation)," Adan said.
Adan said there were 25 casualties from Friday's fighting on Basilan.
REBELS CLAIM HOSTAGES
Muslim rebels said they now hold doctors, patients and a priest among their latest captives.
Joey Candido, one of the Lamitan hostages taken in the hospital, told Reuters: "One kind Abu Sayyaf allowed me to run away. I saw two Americans inside hugging each other in fright."
Mortar and gunfire ripped through Lamitan on Friday night. At least one body could be seen on the street in the morning and soldiers slowly advanced through the town to the sound of sporadic gunfire.
A spokesman for the Abu Sayyaf guerrillas said in a telephone call to a local radio station that the group controlled a church in Lamitan and its main hospital.
"We are part of an Abu Sayyaf suicide squad," spokesman Abu Sulaiman told the radio. "Now we have 200 more hostages. If you do not stop the military action, we will execute the hostages."
Basilan is a mountainous, heavily forested island and its jungle-clad hills have long provided base camps for the Abu Sayyaf, which claims to be fighting for an independent Muslim homeland but appears to concentrate on kidnap for ransom.
Local officials in Lamitan, a market town of more than 100,000 people, mostly Christians, said the rebels had taken over St. Peters Church and an adjacent hospital. Guerrilla snipers were in the belfry and on the roof of the hospital, they said.
There was no word on where the remaining resort hostages were. But one of them appealed on local radio for an end to the military assault, saying that the hostages' lives were in danger.
"Please tell the government not to use the military to solve this problem," hostage Teresa Ganzon told the radio station.
MILITARY OPERATION CONTINUES
While welcoming the news of hostage escapes, the government reiterated it would not stop military operations against the Muslim rebels and would only negotiate for an unconditional release of the captives.
"We cannot stop the operations. This is what's needed. It is important to keep up the pressure by the military. We cannot let up on the military operations," presidential spokesman Rigoberto Tiglao told Manila radio station dzRM.
National Security adviser Roilo Golez also told ANC television channel the government would not pay ransoms and the only negotiation would be for the release of the hostages.
Golez said the church and adjacent hospital was under military control.
"Government forces are surrounding the area to prevent Abu Sayyafs from escaping. We are studying the situation and what should be done," Golez said.
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Six soldiers killed, 41 injured in assault against kidnappers (AFP) 1:16 PM
ZAMBOANGA, June 2 (AFP) - Six soldiers have been killed and 41 others injured during a military assault against the Abu Sayyaf Muslim guerrillas holding an array of hostages in the southern Philippines, an armed forces spokesman said Saturday.
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June 2, 1:01 PM, AFP, Fighting mounts in Philippine town as Muslim rebels take more hostages,
Saturday
BASILAN, Philippines, June 2 (AFP)
A town in this southern Philippine island turned into a battlefield Saturday as government troops besieged Abu Sayyaf Muslim kidnappers who occupied a hospital, taking a new and bigger batch of hostages to defend themselves.
Abu Sayyaf fighters, fleeing a military assault to recover 20 hostages they snatched from a western resort on Sunday, had occupied the hospital and a church in Lamitan, the second largest town in Basilan, boasting they now had another 200 hostages.
Four of the original 20 hostages managed to escape Saturday as the battle raged between the soldiers and the guerrillas.
Three American hostages seized at the resort were still in the hospital.
Among the new hostages being kept in the hospital is parish priest Father Cerilo Nacorda, who was kidnapped by the same group in 1994 as well as a doctor and numerous patients, local officials said.
Abu Sayyaf snipers on rooftops and on the steeple of the church fired upon troops on the ground. A local radio report said as many as six soldiers had been killed but this could not be independently confirmed.
An MG-520 military helicopter gunship riddled the hospital with bullets, forcing the Abu Sayyaf to take cover as four armoured personnel carriers moved into the town to back the troops.
Two of the armoured cars had flattened tires, punctured by rebel bullets.
Residents said fighting started about midnight with bullets and rocket-propelled grenades lighting up the sky.
Government militiaman Esmaraldo Supil, who was shot several times in the stomach, struggled for life in a hospital just outside town.
The blood-caked casualty recalled how the Abu Sayyaf suddenly struck during the night, saying "it was so dark and they started firing. I fell down I was hit by gunfire."
Amador Ballisado, owner of a pension house near the hospital said grenades landed on his house during the fighting.
"We could not sleep. We were lying on a bunker in our house. The power was cut off the whole night," he said.
Alex Malineo, another resident said they wanted to flee but could not leave their houses because of the hail of bullets.
"We are all civilians here and we are all afraid for our lives. We want to rush to the coastline. We cannot leave our homes," he said.
The houses and shops, which were all boarded up, were marked with bullet holes and craters from rockets.
Government forces and the guerrillas appeared to be in a stand-off as troops cordoned off the hospital and adjoining church but have not yet tried to overrun it.
Reporters who reached the town despite a military blockade of civilians were forced to take refuge behind a waiting shed as stray bullets continued to whiz past them.
National Security Adviser Roilo Golez said that instead of taking on the military, the Abu Sayyaf had resorted to using human shields to protect themselves.
But he stressed "we will not stop the offensive... until we have crushed them."
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June 2, 2001, Reuters, 12:24 PM, Four Philippine hostages escape during fighting,
Saturday
Photo Gallery
Reuters Photo
ZAMBOANGA, Philippines (Reuters) - Four hostages held by Muslim rebels in the southern Philippines for the past week escaped on Saturday during a military strike on guerrilla positions, officials said.
The officials, in contact via radio with troops in the town of Lamitan on Basilan island, said an eight-year old boy, a man and a woman managed to escape from the Abu Sayyaf guerrillas.
The three Filipino tourists were among 20 people kidnapped by the rebels from an island resort on Sunday. A resort security guard, also taken captive, escaped earlier on Saturday.
Armed forces spokesman Brigadier-General Ediberto Adan told reporters earlier that the guard, Eldrin Morales, was found by the military after he was left behind by the bandits while fleeing pursuing troops.
Three Americans are among the remaining hostages.
Troops are fighting fiercely with the rebels in Lamitan, a town about 900 km (550 miles) south of Manila. The rebels who entered the town in an attempt to shake off pursuing troops, have taken over a church and a hospital and claim they have taken 200 local people captive.
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June 2, 2001, Reuters, 11:59 AM, Three Philippine hostages escape during fighting,
ZAMBOANGA, Philippines (Reuters) - Three more hostages held by Muslim rebels in the southern Philippines for the past week escaped on Saturday during a military strike on guerrilla positions, officials said.
Photo Gallery
Reuters Photo
ZAMBOANGA, Philippines (Reuters) - Three more hostages held by Muslim rebels in the southern Philippines for the past week escaped on Saturday during a military strike on guerrilla positions, officials said.
The officials, in contact via radio with troops in the town of Lamitan on Basilan island, said an eight-year old boy, a man and a woman managed to escape from the Abu Sayyaf guerrillas.
The three Filipino tourists were among 20 people kidnapped by the rebels from an island resort on Sunday. A resort security guard, also taken captive, escaped earlier on Saturday.
Armed forces spokesman Brigadier-General Ediberto Adan told reporters earlier that another person was also found by the military after he was left behind by the bandits while fleeing pursuing troops. The man, Eldrin Morales, is one of the security staff taken from the resort.
Three Americans are among the remaining hostages.
Troops are fighting fiercely with the rebels in Lamitan, a town about 900 km (550 miles) south of Manila. The rebels who entered the town in an attempt to shake off pursuing troops, have taken over a church and a hospital and claim they have taken 200 local people captive.
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June 2, 2001, Reuters, 11:53 AM, Manila Time, Three More Philippine Hostages Escape During Fighting,
[Posted Friday June 1 11:53 PM ET]
ZAMBOANGA, Philippines (Reuters) - Three more hostages held by Muslim rebels in the southern Philippines for the past week escaped on Saturday during a military strike on guerrilla positions, officials said.
The officials, in contact via radio with troops in the town of Lamitan on Basilan island, said an eight-year old boy, a man and a woman managed to escape from the Abu Sayyaf guerrillas.
The three Filipino tourists were among 20 people kidnapped by the rebels from an island resort on Sunday. A resort security guard, also taken captive, escaped earlier on Saturday.
Armed forces spokesman Brigadier-General Ediberto Adan told reporters earlier that the guard, Eldrin Morales, was found by the military after he was left behind by the bandits while fleeing pursuing troops.
Three Americans are among the remaining hostages.
Troops are fighting fiercely with the rebels in Lamitan, a town about 550 miles south of Manila. The rebels who entered the town in an attempt to shake off pursuing troops, have taken over a church and a hospital and claim they have taken 200 local people captive.
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June 2, 2001, AFP, 11:38 AM, Three American hostages in hospital occupied by Abu Sayyaf,
Saturday
MANILA, June 2 (AFP) -Three Americans taken hostage by Abu Sayyaf rebels from a tourist resort a week ago are being held at a hospital in southern Basilan island which the rebels occupied Saturday with as many as 200 additional hostages, one of the captives who escaped said.
"It is confirmed the three Americans are there. We could identify them because of their lighter skin," the former captive, who was one of 20 people, including the Americans, abducted by the guerrillas from a tourist resort off western Palawan island, said over RGMA radio station.
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June 2, 2001, Reuters, 11:30 AM, Philippine Military Confirm One Hostage Escaped,
[Posted 11:30 PM ET, Friday, June 1, 2001]
MANILA (Reuters) - The Philippines military confirmed on Saturday one hostage escaped from Muslim rebels who kidnapped 20 people, including three Americans, from an island resort last Sunday.
Armed forces spokesman Brigadier-General Ediberto Adan told reporters that Eldrin Morales, one of the security staff taken from the resort, was found by the military after he was left behind by the bandits while they were fleeing pursuing troops.
Morales was among those snatched from Dos Palmas resort on the southern Philippine island of Palawan by Abu Sayyaf guerrillas.
"Their aim now is to escape with hostages and that's what we're trying to stop," Adan said.
Fighting between the rebels and the soldiers have been continuing since Friday morning on the island of Basilan, 550 miles south of Manila where the hostages are being held.
Earlier on Saturday, the Abu Sayyaf guerrillas took over a church and a hospital in the small town of Lamitan on Basilan, claiming they held 200 hostages in addition to the ones already taken.
However, media reports said the fresh hostages, including doctors and patients, numbered only about 20 people.
At least 17 rebels and soldiers have been killed in the clashes since Friday, and dozens wounded.
The government, meanwhile, reiterated that it will not stop military operations against the Muslim rebels and will only negotiate for an unconditional release of the hostages.
"We cannot stop the operations. This is what's needed. It is important to keep up the pressure by the military. We cannot let up on the military operations," Presidential spokesman Rigoberto Tiglao told local radio station dzRM.
National Security adviser Roilo Golez also told ANC television channel the government would not pay ransoms and the only negotiation would be for the release of the hostages.
Golez said the St. Peters Church and the adjacent hospital Jose Torres Memorial Hospital was under military control.
"Government forces are surrounding the area to prevent Abu Sayyaf from escaping. We are studying the situation and what should be done," Golez said.
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June 2, 2001, AFP, 10:31 AM, Abu Sayyaf take 200 hostage in southern Philippines, fighting rages,
Saturday
BASILAN, Philippines, June 2 (AFP)
Abu Sayyaf Muslim guerrillas took 200 people captive Saturday in a new hostage drama after storming a hospital and church in the southern Philippines, a rebel leader claimed over local radio.
The group's suicide squad have threatened to blow up the buildings along with the hostages, mostly hospital patients, if the military continues its assault against the rebels, Abu Sayyaf spokesman Abu Sabaya (eds: correct) told Radio Mindanao Network (RMN).
An Abu Sayyaf suicide squad "is now in control of a church and hospital with around 200 hostages," spokesman Abu Sabaya told the station in the southern city of Zamboanga.
"Now if the military will not stop the operation, we might be forced to execute our hostages," he warned, as the sound of gunfire reverberated in the background.
Officials said several soldiers, civilians and rebels were killed when the military confronted the rebels, many of them perched on the roof of the Fe Torres Memorial private hospital and St. Peter's church in the predominantly-Christian town of Lamitan on Basilan island.
The rebels penetrated the town before dawn Saturday as they fled intense gunfire Friday from soldiers hot on their trail to free three Americans and 17 Filipinos abducted from a resort off western Palawan island last Sunday.
Two soldiers were killed and 14 others injured in Friday's fighting, while 10 Abu Sayyaf rebels were killed, and two hostages wounded, government officials and rebel spokesmen said.
One of the local hostages taken from the resort was freed Saturday by government troops.
Eldren Morales, a security guard at the Dos Palmas resort in Palawan, was recovered in Lamitan with a gunshot wound below his ear as fighting raged between the kidnappers and the military.
Reporters and photographers were barred from entering Lamitan, the second largest city after Basilan's capital Isabela, where they saw wounded soldiers from the fighting being rushed to a government hospital.
Local radio reports said at least 12 soldiers were seen being taken to hospital.
Little information was available from the military amid President Gloria Arroyo's order last week of a news blackout on operations against the Abu Sayyaf.
Armed Forces spokesman Brigadier General Edilberto Adan confirmed Saturday "there was lot of fighting around right now" and "we have enough forces in the area to neutralise the terrorists (Abu Sayyaf)."
He did not confirm the hostage-taking at the church and hospital.
Police said they had recovered the body of a Abu Sayyaf leader, identified as "Commander Yusof," from the scene.
Meanwhile, two MG520 fighter helicopters flew out of the Edwin Andrew air force base in Zamboanga to Lamitan to give air cover to troops fighting the guerrillas.
While making his announcement, Abu Sayyaf spokesman Abu Sabaya put a local woman hostage on air.
Hostage Teresa Ganzon said: "We are with the Abu Sayyaf suicide squad. I am appealing to the government not to worsen the situation, I hope they will do it in a more peaceful way in negotiation."
"Please don't sacrifice our life," she said before being abruptly cut off the airwaves.
Lamitan mayor Inocente Ramos and area councillor Bidong Israel told local radio there had been "several killed" in the fighting. "The main business district of Lamitan looks like a battleground," he said.
Ramos added that fighting in Lamitan and Tuburan has sent villagers fleeing and that Abu Sayyaf rebels had reportedly occupied some vacated houses.
Lamitan, with a population of about 50,000 people, had now been cordoned off and there were many Abu Sayyaf snipers on the roof of the church firing at soldiers, he said.
Abu Sayyaf spokesman Abu Sabaya said his group wanted the government to turn over to them several southernmost islands.
"We do not want money, we just want the return of Sulu, Basilan and Tawi-tawi," Sabaya said.
He was referring to Basilan and Sulu islands, known haunts of the Abu Sayyaf and Tawi-tawi, which has also been attacked by the group in the past.
The Abu Sayyaf, which is known for attacking Christians, has previously demanded the expulsion of Christian influences from southern islands in the Philippines.
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June 2, 2001, Reuters, 10:15 AM, Philippine military reported to have found one hostage,
Saturday
MANILA (Reuters) - The Philippine military has found one of the 20 hostages abducted by Muslim rebels last Sunday near a small town in southern Philippines, local radio reports said on Saturday.
The unconfirmed reports said the hostage, Eldrin Morales, was one of the security staff snatched from Dos Palmas resort in southern Philippine island of Palawan by the Abu Sayyaf guerrillas.
The radio reports said the military suspected Morales, who suffered a bullet wound, was left behind near the town of Lamitan on Basilan island because he could hinder the guerrillas' escape as mortar and gunfire ripped through the night.
"This is good news to us that a hostage was able to escape. The military is still evaluating information reaching them. Malacanang is also monitoring the news," Palace spokesman Rigoberto Tiglao told local radio station dzRM.
Radio reports quoted military officers as saying Morales, had a bullet wound in the lower left ear but the injury was not serious.
Muslim rebels, trying to shake off pursuing troops on the southern island took over a church and a hospital in Lamitan on Saturday, saying they held 200 hostages including doctors, patients and a priest.
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June 2, 2001, AFP, 9:18 AM, Philippine troops recover hostage from resort,
MANILA, June 1 (AFP) -
Philippine troops recovered one of the Fillpino hostages seized from a western Philippine resort, a report in Manila said Saturday.
RMN television said that Eldren Morales, a security guard of the Dos Palmas resort in Palawan, was recovered in the southern town of Lamitan amid fighting between the kidnappers and the military.
Morales was seized along with three Americans and 16 Filipinos by Muslim guerrillas.
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June 2, 2001, Reuters, 8:49 AM, Philippine guerrillas say they've taken 200 more hostages, by Erik de Castro
Photo Gallery
Reuters Photo
Philippine guerrillas say they've taken 200 more hostages - A Philippine policeman runs for cover during a firefight with Abu Sayyaf Muslim guerrillas in Lamitan town in the southern Philippines on June 2. The guerrillas say they have taken another 200 hostages. REUTERS/Erik de Castro
LAMITAN, Philippines (Reuters) - Muslim rebels trying to shake off pursuing Philippine troops on a southern island took over a church and a hospital in a small town on Saturday and said they held 200 hostages, including doctors, patients and a priest.
Mortar and gunfire ripped through the town of Lamitan on Basilan island through the night. At least one body could be seen on the street in the morning and soldiers slowly advanced through the town to the sound of sporadic gunfire.
At a makeshift hospital in the town, more than a dozen soldiers were being treated, although some had what seemed to be mortal head and body injuries.
A spokesman for the Abu Sayyaf guerrillas said in a telephone call to a local radio station that the group controlled a church in Lamitan and its main hospital.
"We are part of an Abu Sayyaf suicide squad," spokesman Abu Sulaiman told the radio. "Now we have 200 more hostages. If you do not stop the military action, we will execute the hostages."
Military officials were not immediately available for comment.
Local officials in Lamitan, a bustling market town of over 100,000 people, mostly Christians, said the rebels had taken over the St. Peters Church and an adjacent hospital. Guerrilla snipers were in the belfry and on the roof of the hospital, they said.
They said at least three people were killed in fighting overnight, including two soldiers and one rebel.
Fighting between the rebels and the soldiers started on Friday morning elsewhere on Basilan. The rebel group was being pursued after it kidnapped 20 hostages, including three Americans, from an upscale island resort last Sunday.
At least 14 people, including 12 rebels and two soldiers, were killed in Friday's fighting, radio reports and military officials said. Dozens were wounded.
There was no word on where the 20 hostages were. But one of them appealed on local radio for an end to the military assault, saying that the hostages lives are in danger.
Lamitan is the largest town on Basilan after the local capital Isabela. It lies slightly inland on the northern coast of Basilan but is connected to the sea by an estuary.
Basilan itself is a mountainous, heavily forested island some 900 km (550 miles) south of Manila. Its jungle-clad interior hills have long provided base camps for the Abu Sayyaf, which claims to be fighting for an independent Muslim homeland but appears to concentrate on kidnap for ransom.
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June 2, 2001, Reuters, 8:36 AM, Rebels Take Over Hospital, Church in S.Philippines, by Erik de Castro,
[Posted, Friday, June 1, 8:36 PM ET]
LAMITAN, Philippines (Reuters) - Muslim rebels trying to shake off pursuing Philippine troops on a southern island took over a church and a hospital in a small town on Saturday and said they held 200 hostages, including doctors, patients and a priest.
Mortar and gunfire ripped through the town of Lamitan on Basilan island through the night. At least one body could be seen on the street in the morning and soldiers slowly advanced through the town to the sound of sporadic gunfire.
At a makeshift hospital in the town, more than a dozen soldiers were being treated, although some had what seemed to be mortal head and body injuries.
A spokesman for the Abu Sayyaf guerrillas said in a telephone call to a local radio station that the group controlled a church in Lamitan and its main hospital.
"We are part of an Abu Sayyaf suicide squad," spokesman Abu Sulaiman told the radio. "Now we have 200 more hostages. If you do not stop the military action, we will execute the hostages."
Military officials were not immediately available for comment.
Local officials in Lamitan, a bustling market town of over 100,000 people, mostly Christians, said the rebels had taken over the St. Peters Church and an adjacent hospital. Guerrilla snipers were in the belfry and on the roof of the hospital, they said.
They said at least three people were killed in fighting overnight, including two soldiers and one rebel.
Fighting between the rebels and the soldiers started on Friday morning elsewhere on Basilan. The rebel group was being pursued after it kidnapped 20 hostages, including three Americans, from an upscale island resort last Sunday.
At least 14 people, including 12 rebels and two soldiers, were killed in Friday's fighting, radio reports and military officials said. Dozens were wounded.
There was no word on where the 20 hostages were. But one of them appealed on local radio for an end to the military assault, saying that the hostages lives are in danger.
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June 2, 2001, AP, 8:35 AM, Military-Kidnapper Clashes Continue, by Jim Gomez,
Saturday
DOZEN BODIES IN HOSPITAL
Military spokesman Colonel Horacio Lapinid told reporters in nearby Zamboanga city, the headquarters of the southern command, that four soldiers were killed and 12 wounded in the fighting. Another spokesman said the body of an Abu Sayyaf gunman was also recovered.
Rose Tamayo, a correspondent for the Pilipino Star newspaper, said she counted 12 bodies at the Lamitan Municipal Hospital, but could not tell if they were of civilians, rebels or soldiers.
Dozens of others with bullet injuries were being treated, she said.
Late into the afternoon, gunfire continued to rip through the mainly Christian town of about 100,000 people, some 12 hours after the guerrillas swarmed through. The fighting was centerd on the compound where both the church and the hospital are located.
One school was burned down in the fighting and bullet-marks pocked the fronts of many houses.
Thosuands of Lamitan residents fled the town, taking ferries to safer parts of Basilan.
"This is affecting our lives too much. We're evacuating without money," Hadja Nhena said while carrying belongings and pulling her four children through the streets.
A spokesman for the Abu Sayyaf guerrillas said in a telephone call to a local radio station that the group controlled a church in Lamitan and its main hospital.
"We are part of an Abu Sayyaf suicide squad," spokesman Abu Sulaiman told the radio. "Now we have 200 more hostages. If you do not stop the military action, we will execute the hostages."
BUSTLING MARKET TOWN
Basilan is a mountainous, heavily forested island and its jungle-clad hills have long provided base camps for the Abu Sayyaf, which claims to be fighting for an independent Muslim homeland but appears to concentrate on kidnap for ransom.
Lamitan, a bustling market town, is on its northern coast, slightly inland but connected to the sea by an estuary.
Earlier, one of the hostages appealed on local radio for an end to the military assault, saying that the hostages' lives were in danger.
"Please tell the government not to use the military to solve this problem," hostage Teresa Ganzon told the radio station.
While welcoming the news of hostage escapes, the government reiterated it would not stop military operations against the Muslim rebels and would only negotiate for an unconditional release of the captives.
"We cannot stop the operations. This is what's needed. It is important to keep up the pressure by the military. We cannot let up on the military operations," presidential spokesman Rigoberto Tiglao told Manila radio station dzRM.
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June 2, 2001, Reuters, 1:45 PM, Four Philippine hostages escape from guerrillas' grip, By Erik de Castro,
Saturday
 |
| Four Philippine hostages escape from guerrillas' grip - Filipino hostages run towards government troops after escaping from their captors - Muslim Abu Sayyaf guerrillas - in Lamitan town in the southern Philippines on June 2. The guerrillas claim they have taken another 200 hostages on the island. REUTERS/Erik de Castro |
Photo Gallery
Reuters Photo
LAMITAN, Philippines (Reuters) - Four hostages held by Muslim rebels in the southern Philippines escaped on Saturday during a military strike on guerrilla positions, officials said.
The hostages, three Filipino tourists, including an eight-year-old boy, and a resort security guard, were among the 20 people kidnapped by Abu Sayyaf rebels from an island resort near Palawan last Sunday.
Three Americans are among the remaining hostages held by the rebels, who claimed they have taken 200 more people captive after taking over a church and a hospital on the southern island of Basilan.
Fighting between the rebels and the soldiers erupted in Lamitan, a town on Basilan about 900 km (550 miles) from Manila, after between 50 and 60 rebels raided a hospital looking for medicine and doctors, Philippine armed forces spokesman Brigadier-General Ediberto Adan told reporters.
"As a result of this operation, one hostage taken from Dos Palmas resort was rescued. His name is Eldrin Morales, one of the staff of Dos Palmas resort," Adan said.
Officials said the other three were eight-year-old R.J. Recio, Reghis Romero and Riza Rodriguez Santos.
"One soldier, one Cafgu (Citizens Armed Force Geographical Unit) and one Abu Sayyaf commander -- a certain Commander Yusop -- were killed (in Saturday's operation)," Adan said, adding that the body of Yusop was accounted for by the military.
Adan said there were 25 casualties from Friday's fighting on Basilan.
REBELS CLAIM MORE HOSTAGES
Muslim rebels said they now hold doctors, patients and a priest among their latest captives.
Joey Candido, one of the Lamitan hostages taken in the hospital, told Reuters: "One kind Abu Sayyaf allowed me to run away. I saw two Americans inside hugging each other in fright."
Mortar and gunfire ripped through Lamitan on Friday night. At least one body could be seen on the street in the morning and soldiers slowly advanced through the town to the sound of sporadic gunfire.
A spokesman for the Abu Sayyaf guerrillas said in a telephone call to a local radio station that the group controlled a church in Lamitan and its main hospital.
"We are part of an Abu Sayyaf suicide squad," spokesman Abu Sulaiman told the radio. "Now we have 200 more hostages. If you do not stop the military action, we will execute the hostages."
Basilan is a mountainous, heavily forested island and its jungle-clad hills have long provided base camps for the Abu Sayyaf, which claims to be fighting for an independent Muslim homeland but appears to concentrate on kidnap for ransom.
Local officials in Lamitan, a market town of more than 100,000 people, mostly Christians, said the rebels had taken over St. Peters Church and an adjacent hospital. Guerrilla snipers were in the belfry and on the roof of the hospital, they said.
There was no word on where the remaining resort hostages were. But one of them appealed on local radio for an end to the military assault, saying that the hostages' lives were in danger.
"Please tell the government not to use the military to solve this problem," hostage Teresa Ganzon told the radio station.
MILITARY OPERATION CONTINUES
While welcoming the news of hostage escapes, the government reiterated it would not stop military operations against the Muslim rebels and would only negotiate for an unconditional release of the captives.
"We cannot stop the operations. This is what's needed. It is important to keep up the pressure by the military. We cannot let up on the military operations," Presidential spokesman Rigoberto Tiglao told Manila radio station dzRM.
National Security adviser Roilo Golez also told ANC television channel the government would not pay ransoms and the only negotiation would be for the release of the hostages.
Golez said the church and adjacent hospital was under military control.
"Government forces are surrounding the area to prevent Abu Sayyafs from escaping. We are studying the situation and what should be done," Golez said.
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[Posted Saturday June 2 1:42 AM ET]
LAMITAN, Philippines (AP) - Government forces fought street battles Saturday against Muslim separatists who took three Americans and 17 others hostage, extending the battle from rugged jungles, officials said. More hostages were taken but some of the original captives fled.
Basilan provincial Gov. Wahad Akbar said four of the 17 Filipino hostages seized at a luxury beach resort Sunday, including an 8-year-old boy, escaped during the chaos. At least one was injured and evacuated. The whereabouts of the three Americans was unclear.
The military said six soldiers were killed during two days of fighting and 41 were wounded. Witnesses also saw guerrilla and civilian casualties.
As many as 60 Abu Sayyaf extremists invaded the town of Lamitan on the southern island of Basilan early Saturday and were waging a battle against troops, said town Mayor Inocente Ramos. Lamitan, about 560 miles south of Manila, is only one of two Christian areas on the predominantly Muslim island.
Abu Suleiman, a leader of the separatists, said a "suicide squad" invaded a hospital and church, seizing patients, doctors and a priest. He claimed the squad was holding 200 new hostages. The military said only 20 newly taken hostages were being held.
National Security Adviser Roilo Golez said troops quickly surrounded the area and had the guerrillas trapped in the hospital.
"Their aim now is to escape with the hostages," Brig. Gen. Edilberto Adan said told reporters Saturday. "We don't think they will invade any other place."
Witnesses said rebels were holding the hospital and church, firing at troops from rooftops. Civilians fleeing the area said at least one building was in flames.
At midday, gunfire around the hospital had slowed to a tense standoff as a helicopter hovered overhead.
Meanwhile, thousands of civilians clogged roads leading out of Lamitan, a city of about 15,000.
"There is heavy fighting and many killed," Ramos told Radio Mindanao Network. "There are big explosions."
Earlier Saturday, in a telephone call to the radio station, Suleiman threatened to kill hostages unless the government called off its offensive. The network reported at least one Abu Sayyaf commander was killed in the hospital siege.
Less than six miles away, soldiers backed by helicopter gunships fought a running battle through rugged jungle with a 100-man contingent of separatists, the military said.
In those clashes, two soldiers, several civilians and some guerrillas were reported dead, and 14 soldiers injured, as the army fought to rescue the hostages seized from the Dos Palmas beach resort in the western Philippines.
It was not clear whether the hostages were with the rebels in Lamitan or in the jungle.
Teresa Ganzon, one of the hostages, spoke on Radio Mindanao for the third time in two days early Saturday, asking the government to halt its offensive.
"We are calling on the military and the government to stop fighting. There are many innocent people with us. Find another solution," she said.
The clashes began just before dawn Friday when a leader of the Abu Sayyaf guerrillas called the radio station claiming two captives had been shot and threatening to kill the rest. There was no confirmation of injuries to the hostages.
Soldiers who pursued the fleeing Abu Sayyaf through the thick undergrowth, where visibility was estimated at only 15 yards, found the bodies of an unspecified number of rebels. Military officials said they believed others had been dragged away.
Military spokesman Brig. Gen. Edilberto Adan said late Friday that the rebels were in a valley about four miles from the shore. Troops were trying to cut off an escape route and surround them.
"The mission is clear: to maintain contact so as to prevent them from escaping. We are not here to disengage. We want to engage," Adan said.
It was unclear how many hostages were being dragged along by the rebels, who earlier claimed they split their captives into at least two groups.
Before the kidnappings, the military had about 1,800 soldiers on Basilan tracking the Abu Sayyaf guerrillas. More troops were being deployed to the island.
Abu Sayyaf gunmen seized the tourists Sunday from the Dos Palmas resort off Palawan Island, on the edge of the Sulu Sea. Basilan is at the sea's southeast corner, 350 miles away.
The Abu Sayyaf, which claims it fights for a separate Muslim state, seized 10 foreign tourists about a year ago from a Malaysian resort, and most were released for ransom.
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June 2, 2001, Reuters, 1:19 PM, Four Philippine Hostages Escape From Rebels' Grip, by Erik de Castro,
[Posted Saturday June 2 1:19 AM ET]
LAMITAN, Philippines (Reuters) - Four hostages held by Muslim rebels in the southern Philippines escaped on Saturday during a military strike on guerrilla positions, officials said.
The hostages, three Filipino tourists, including an eight-year-old boy, and a resort security guard, were among the 20 people kidnapped by Abu Sayyaf rebels from an island resort near Palawan last Sunday.
Three Americans are among the remaining hostages held by the rebels, who claimed they have taken 200 more people captive after taking over a church and a hospital on the southern island of Basilan.
Fighting between the rebels and the soldiers erupted in Lamitan, a town on Basilan about 550 miles from Manila, after between 50 and 60 rebels raided a hospital looking for medicine and doctors, Philippine armed forces spokesman Brigadier-General Ediberto Adan told reporters.
"As a result of this operation, one hostage taken from Dos Palmas resort was rescued. His name is Eldrin Morales, one of the staff of Dos Palmas resort," Adan said.
Officials said the other three were eight-year-old R.J. Recio, Reghis Romero and Riza Rodriguez Santos.
"One soldier, one Cafgu (Citizens Armed Force Geographical Unit) and one Abu Sayyaf commander -- a certain Commander Yusop -- were killed (in Saturday's operation)," Adan said.
Adan said there were 25 casualties from Friday's fighting on Basilan.
REBELS CLAIM HOSTAGES
Muslim rebels said they now hold doctors, patients and a priest among their latest captives.
Joey Candido, one of the Lamitan hostages taken in the hospital, told Reuters: "One kind Abu Sayyaf allowed me to run away. I saw two Americans inside hugging each other in fright."
Mortar and gunfire ripped through Lamitan on Friday night. At least one body could be seen on the street in the morning and soldiers slowly advanced through the town to the sound of sporadic gunfire.
A spokesman for the Abu Sayyaf guerrillas said in a telephone call to a local radio station that the group controlled a church in Lamitan and its main hospital.
"We are part of an Abu Sayyaf suicide squad," spokesman Abu Sulaiman told the radio. "Now we have 200 more hostages. If you do not stop the military action, we will execute the hostages."
Basilan is a mountainous, heavily forested island and its jungle-clad hills have long provided base camps for the Abu Sayyaf, which claims to be fighting for an independent Muslim homeland but appears to concentrate on kidnap for ransom.
Local officials in Lamitan, a market town of more than 100,000 people, mostly Christians, said the rebels had taken over St. Peters Church and an adjacent hospital. Guerrilla snipers were in the belfry and on the roof of the hospital, they said.
There was no word on where the remaining resort hostages were. But one of them appealed on local radio for an end to the military assault, saying that the hostages' lives were in danger.
"Please tell the government not to use the military to solve this problem," hostage Teresa Ganzon told the radio station.
MILITARY OPERATION CONTINUES
While welcoming the news of hostage escapes, the government reiterated it would not stop military operations against the Muslim rebels and would only negotiate for an unconditional release of the captives.
"We cannot stop the operations. This is what's needed. It is important to keep up the pressure by the military. We cannot let up on the military operations," presidential spokesman Rigoberto Tiglao told Manila radio station dzRM.
National Security adviser Roilo Golez also told ANC television channel the government would not pay ransoms and the only negotiation would be for the release of the hostages.
Golez said the church and adjacent hospital was under military control.
"Government forces are surrounding the area to prevent Abu Sayyafs from escaping. We are studying the situation and what should be done," Golez said.
_______________________________________________________________________
Six soldiers killed, 41 injured in assault against kidnappers (AFP) 1:16 PM
ZAMBOANGA, June 2 (AFP) - Six soldiers have been killed and 41 others injured during a military assault against the Abu Sayyaf Muslim guerrillas holding an array of hostages in the southern Philippines, an armed forces spokesman said Saturday.
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June 2, 1:01 PM, AFP, Fighting mounts in Philippine town as Muslim rebels take more hostages,
Saturday
BASILAN, Philippines, June 2 (AFP)
A town in this southern Philippine island turned into a battlefield Saturday as government troops besieged Abu Sayyaf Muslim kidnappers who occupied a hospital, taking a new and bigger batch of hostages to defend themselves.
Abu Sayyaf fighters, fleeing a military assault to recover 20 hostages they snatched from a western resort on Sunday, had occupied the hospital and a church in Lamitan, the second largest town in Basilan, boasting they now had another 200 hostages.
Four of the original 20 hostages managed to escape Saturday as the battle raged between the soldiers and the guerrillas.
Three American hostages seized at the resort were still in the hospital.
Among the new hostages being kept in the hospital is parish priest Father Cerilo Nacorda, who was kidnapped by the same group in 1994 as well as a doctor and numerous patients, local officials said.
Abu Sayyaf snipers on rooftops and on the steeple of the church fired upon troops on the ground. A local radio report said as many as six soldiers had been killed but this could not be independently confirmed.
An MG-520 military helicopter gunship riddled the hospital with bullets, forcing the Abu Sayyaf to take cover as four armoured personnel carriers moved into the town to back the troops.
Two of the armoured cars had flattened tires, punctured by rebel bullets.
Residents said fighting started about midnight with bullets and rocket-propelled grenades lighting up the sky.
Government militiaman Esmaraldo Supil, who was shot several times in the stomach, struggled for life in a hospital just outside town.
The blood-caked casualty recalled how the Abu Sayyaf suddenly struck during the night, saying "it was so dark and they started firing. I fell down I was hit by gunfire."
Amador Ballisado, owner of a pension house near the hospital said grenades landed on his house during the fighting.
"We could not sleep. We were lying on a bunker in our house. The power was cut off the whole night," he said.
Alex Malineo, another resident said they wanted to flee but could not leave their houses because of the hail of bullets.
"We are all civilians here and we are all afraid for our lives. We want to rush to the coastline. We cannot leave our homes," he said.
The houses and shops, which were all boarded up, were marked with bullet holes and craters from rockets.
Government forces and the guerrillas appeared to be in a stand-off as troops cordoned off the hospital and adjoining church but have not yet tried to overrun it.
Reporters who reached the town despite a military blockade of civilians were forced to take refuge behind a waiting shed as stray bullets continued to whiz past them.
National Security Adviser Roilo Golez said that instead of taking on the military, the Abu Sayyaf had resorted to using human shields to protect themselves.
But he stressed "we will not stop the offensive... until we have crushed them."
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June 2, 2001, Reuters, 12:24 PM, Four Philippine hostages escape during fighting,
Saturday
Photo Gallery
Reuters Photo
ZAMBOANGA, Philippines (Reuters) - Four hostages held by Muslim rebels in the southern Philippines for the past week escaped on Saturday during a military strike on guerrilla positions, officials said.
The officials, in contact via radio with troops in the town of Lamitan on Basilan island, said an eight-year old boy, a man and a woman managed to escape from the Abu Sayyaf guerrillas.
The three Filipino tourists were among 20 people kidnapped by the rebels from an island resort on Sunday. A resort security guard, also taken captive, escaped earlier on Saturday.
Armed forces spokesman Brigadier-General Ediberto Adan told reporters earlier that the guard, Eldrin Morales, was found by the military after he was left behind by the bandits while fleeing pursuing troops.
Three Americans are among the remaining hostages.
Troops are fighting fiercely with the rebels in Lamitan, a town about 900 km (550 miles) south of Manila. The rebels who entered the town in an attempt to shake off pursuing troops, have taken over a church and a hospital and claim they have taken 200 local people captive.
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June 2, 2001, Reuters, 11:59 AM, Three Philippine hostages escape during fighting,
ZAMBOANGA, Philippines (Reuters) - Three more hostages held by Muslim rebels in the southern Philippines for the past week escaped on Saturday during a military strike on guerrilla positions, officials said.
 |
| Three Philippine hostages escape during fighting - Filipino soldiers take cover behind an armoured personnel carrier during a gunbattle with Abu Sayyaf Muslim guerrillas in Lamitan town in southern Philippines on June 2. Three hostages escaped from the guerrillas during the military strike. REUTERS/Erik de Castro |
Photo Gallery
Reuters Photo
ZAMBOANGA, Philippines (Reuters) - Three more hostages held by Muslim rebels in the southern Philippines for the past week escaped on Saturday during a military strike on guerrilla positions, officials said.
The officials, in contact via radio with troops in the town of Lamitan on Basilan island, said an eight-year old boy, a man and a woman managed to escape from the Abu Sayyaf guerrillas.
The three Filipino tourists were among 20 people kidnapped by the rebels from an island resort on Sunday. A resort security guard, also taken captive, escaped earlier on Saturday.
Armed forces spokesman Brigadier-General Ediberto Adan told reporters earlier that another person was also found by the military after he was left behind by the bandits while fleeing pursuing troops. The man, Eldrin Morales, is one of the security staff taken from the resort.
Three Americans are among the remaining hostages.
Troops are fighting fiercely with the rebels in Lamitan, a town about 900 km (550 miles) south of Manila. The rebels who entered the town in an attempt to shake off pursuing troops, have taken over a church and a hospital and claim they have taken 200 local people captive.
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June 2, 2001, Reuters, 11:53 AM, Manila Time, Three More Philippine Hostages Escape During Fighting,
[Posted Friday June 1 11:53 PM ET]
ZAMBOANGA, Philippines (Reuters) - Three more hostages held by Muslim rebels in the southern Philippines for the past week escaped on Saturday during a military strike on guerrilla positions, officials said.
The officials, in contact via radio with troops in the town of Lamitan on Basilan island, said an eight-year old boy, a man and a woman managed to escape from the Abu Sayyaf guerrillas.
The three Filipino tourists were among 20 people kidnapped by the rebels from an island resort on Sunday. A resort security guard, also taken captive, escaped earlier on Saturday.
Armed forces spokesman Brigadier-General Ediberto Adan told reporters earlier that the guard, Eldrin Morales, was found by the military after he was left behind by the bandits while fleeing pursuing troops.
Three Americans are among the remaining hostages.
Troops are fighting fiercely with the rebels in Lamitan, a town about 550 miles south of Manila. The rebels who entered the town in an attempt to shake off pursuing troops, have taken over a church and a hospital and claim they have taken 200 local people captive.
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June 2, 2001, AFP, 11:38 AM, Three American hostages in hospital occupied by Abu Sayyaf,
Saturday
MANILA, June 2 (AFP) -Three Americans taken hostage by Abu Sayyaf rebels from a tourist resort a week ago are being held at a hospital in southern Basilan island which the rebels occupied Saturday with as many as 200 additional hostages, one of the captives who escaped said.
"It is confirmed the three Americans are there. We could identify them because of their lighter skin," the former captive, who was one of 20 people, including the Americans, abducted by the guerrillas from a tourist resort off western Palawan island, said over RGMA radio station.
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June 2, 2001, Reuters, 11:30 AM, Philippine Military Confirm One Hostage Escaped,
[Posted 11:30 PM ET, Friday, June 1, 2001]
MANILA (Reuters) - The Philippines military confirmed on Saturday one hostage escaped from Muslim rebels who kidnapped 20 people, including three Americans, from an island resort last Sunday.
Armed forces spokesman Brigadier-General Ediberto Adan told reporters that Eldrin Morales, one of the security staff taken from the resort, was found by the military after he was left behind by the bandits while they were fleeing pursuing troops.
Morales was among those snatched from Dos Palmas resort on the southern Philippine island of Palawan by Abu Sayyaf guerrillas.
"Their aim now is to escape with hostages and that's what we're trying to stop," Adan said.
Fighting between the rebels and the soldiers have been continuing since Friday morning on the island of Basilan, 550 miles south of Manila where the hostages are being held.
Earlier on Saturday, the Abu Sayyaf guerrillas took over a church and a hospital in the small town of Lamitan on Basilan, claiming they held 200 hostages in addition to the ones already taken.
However, media reports said the fresh hostages, including doctors and patients, numbered only about 20 people.
At least 17 rebels and soldiers have been killed in the clashes since Friday, and dozens wounded.
The government, meanwhile, reiterated that it will not stop military operations against the Muslim rebels and will only negotiate for an unconditional release of the hostages.
"We cannot stop the operations. This is what's needed. It is important to keep up the pressure by the military. We cannot let up on the military operations," Presidential spokesman Rigoberto Tiglao told local radio station dzRM.
National Security adviser Roilo Golez also told ANC television channel the government would not pay ransoms and the only negotiation would be for the release of the hostages.
Golez said the St. Peters Church and the adjacent hospital Jose Torres Memorial Hospital was under military control.
"Government forces are surrounding the area to prevent Abu Sayyaf from escaping. We are studying the situation and what should be done," Golez said.
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June 2, 2001, AFP, 10:31 AM, Abu Sayyaf take 200 hostage in southern Philippines, fighting rages,
Saturday
BASILAN, Philippines, June 2 (AFP)
Abu Sayyaf Muslim guerrillas took 200 people captive Saturday in a new hostage drama after storming a hospital and church in the southern Philippines, a rebel leader claimed over local radio.
The group's suicide squad have threatened to blow up the buildings along with the hostages, mostly hospital patients, if the military continues its assault against the rebels, Abu Sayyaf spokesman Abu Sabaya (eds: correct) told Radio Mindanao Network (RMN).
An Abu Sayyaf suicide squad "is now in control of a church and hospital with around 200 hostages," spokesman Abu Sabaya told the station in the southern city of Zamboanga.
"Now if the military will not stop the operation, we might be forced to execute our hostages," he warned, as the sound of gunfire reverberated in the background.
Officials said several soldiers, civilians and rebels were killed when the military confronted the rebels, many of them perched on the roof of the Fe Torres Memorial private hospital and St. Peter's church in the predominantly-Christian town of Lamitan on Basilan island.
The rebels penetrated the town before dawn Saturday as they fled intense gunfire Friday from soldiers hot on their trail to free three Americans and 17 Filipinos abducted from a resort off western Palawan island last Sunday.
Two soldiers were killed and 14 others injured in Friday's fighting, while 10 Abu Sayyaf rebels were killed, and two hostages wounded, government officials and rebel spokesmen said.
One of the local hostages taken from the resort was freed Saturday by government troops.
Eldren Morales, a security guard at the Dos Palmas resort in Palawan, was recovered in Lamitan with a gunshot wound below his ear as fighting raged between the kidnappers and the military.
Reporters and photographers were barred from entering Lamitan, the second largest city after Basilan's capital Isabela, where they saw wounded soldiers from the fighting being rushed to a government hospital.
Local radio reports said at least 12 soldiers were seen being taken to hospital.
Little information was available from the military amid President Gloria Arroyo's order last week of a news blackout on operations against the Abu Sayyaf.
Armed Forces spokesman Brigadier General Edilberto Adan confirmed Saturday "there was lot of fighting around right now" and "we have enough forces in the area to neutralise the terrorists (Abu Sayyaf)."
He did not confirm the hostage-taking at the church and hospital.
Police said they had recovered the body of a Abu Sayyaf leader, identified as "Commander Yusof," from the scene.
Meanwhile, two MG520 fighter helicopters flew out of the Edwin Andrew air force base in Zamboanga to Lamitan to give air cover to troops fighting the guerrillas.
While making his announcement, Abu Sayyaf spokesman Abu Sabaya put a local woman hostage on air.
Hostage Teresa Ganzon said: "We are with the Abu Sayyaf suicide squad. I am appealing to the government not to worsen the situation, I hope they will do it in a more peaceful way in negotiation."
"Please don't sacrifice our life," she said before being abruptly cut off the airwaves.
Lamitan mayor Inocente Ramos and area councillor Bidong Israel told local radio there had been "several killed" in the fighting. "The main business district of Lamitan looks like a battleground," he said.
Ramos added that fighting in Lamitan and Tuburan has sent villagers fleeing and that Abu Sayyaf rebels had reportedly occupied some vacated houses.
Lamitan, with a population of about 50,000 people, had now been cordoned off and there were many Abu Sayyaf snipers on the roof of the church firing at soldiers, he said.
Abu Sayyaf spokesman Abu Sabaya said his group wanted the government to turn over to them several southernmost islands.
"We do not want money, we just want the return of Sulu, Basilan and Tawi-tawi," Sabaya said.
He was referring to Basilan and Sulu islands, known haunts of the Abu Sayyaf and Tawi-tawi, which has also been attacked by the group in the past.
The Abu Sayyaf, which is known for attacking Christians, has previously demanded the expulsion of Christian influences from southern islands in the Philippines.
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June 2, 2001, Reuters, 10:15 AM, Philippine military reported to have found one hostage,
Saturday
MANILA (Reuters) - The Philippine military has found one of the 20 hostages abducted by Muslim rebels last Sunday near a small town in southern Philippines, local radio reports said on Saturday.
The unconfirmed reports said the hostage, Eldrin Morales, was one of the security staff snatched from Dos Palmas resort in southern Philippine island of Palawan by the Abu Sayyaf guerrillas.
The radio reports said the military suspected Morales, who suffered a bullet wound, was left behind near the town of Lamitan on Basilan island because he could hinder the guerrillas' escape as mortar and gunfire ripped through the night.
"This is good news to us that a hostage was able to escape. The military is still evaluating information reaching them. Malacanang is also monitoring the news," Palace spokesman Rigoberto Tiglao told local radio station dzRM.
Radio reports quoted military officers as saying Morales, had a bullet wound in the lower left ear but the injury was not serious.
Muslim rebels, trying to shake off pursuing troops on the southern island took over a church and a hospital in Lamitan on Saturday, saying they held 200 hostages including doctors, patients and a priest.
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June 2, 2001, AFP, 9:18 AM, Philippine troops recover hostage from resort,
MANILA, June 1 (AFP) -
Philippine troops recovered one of the Fillpino hostages seized from a western Philippine resort, a report in Manila said Saturday.
RMN television said that Eldren Morales, a security guard of the Dos Palmas resort in Palawan, was recovered in the southern town of Lamitan amid fighting between the kidnappers and the military.
Morales was seized along with three Americans and 16 Filipinos by Muslim guerrillas.
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June 2, 2001, Reuters, 8:49 AM, Philippine guerrillas say they've taken 200 more hostages, by Erik de Castro
Photo Gallery
Reuters Photo
Philippine guerrillas say they've taken 200 more hostages - A Philippine policeman runs for cover during a firefight with Abu Sayyaf Muslim guerrillas in Lamitan town in the southern Philippines on June 2. The guerrillas say they have taken another 200 hostages. REUTERS/Erik de Castro
LAMITAN, Philippines (Reuters) - Muslim rebels trying to shake off pursuing Philippine troops on a southern island took over a church and a hospital in a small town on Saturday and said they held 200 hostages, including doctors, patients and a priest.
Mortar and gunfire ripped through the town of Lamitan on Basilan island through the night. At least one body could be seen on the street in the morning and soldiers slowly advanced through the town to the sound of sporadic gunfire.
At a makeshift hospital in the town, more than a dozen soldiers were being treated, although some had what seemed to be mortal head and body injuries.
A spokesman for the Abu Sayyaf guerrillas said in a telephone call to a local radio station that the group controlled a church in Lamitan and its main hospital.
"We are part of an Abu Sayyaf suicide squad," spokesman Abu Sulaiman told the radio. "Now we have 200 more hostages. If you do not stop the military action, we will execute the hostages."
Military officials were not immediately available for comment.
Local officials in Lamitan, a bustling market town of over 100,000 people, mostly Christians, said the rebels had taken over the St. Peters Church and an adjacent hospital. Guerrilla snipers were in the belfry and on the roof of the hospital, they said.
They said at least three people were killed in fighting overnight, including two soldiers and one rebel.
Fighting between the rebels and the soldiers started on Friday morning elsewhere on Basilan. The rebel group was being pursued after it kidnapped 20 hostages, including three Americans, from an upscale island resort last Sunday.
At least 14 people, including 12 rebels and two soldiers, were killed in Friday's fighting, radio reports and military officials said. Dozens were wounded.
There was no word on where the 20 hostages were. But one of them appealed on local radio for an end to the military assault, saying that the hostages lives are in danger.
Lamitan is the largest town on Basilan after the local capital Isabela. It lies slightly inland on the northern coast of Basilan but is connected to the sea by an estuary.
Basilan itself is a mountainous, heavily forested island some 900 km (550 miles) south of Manila. Its jungle-clad interior hills have long provided base camps for the Abu Sayyaf, which claims to be fighting for an independent Muslim homeland but appears to concentrate on kidnap for ransom.
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June 2, 2001, Reuters, 8:36 AM, Rebels Take Over Hospital, Church in S.Philippines, by Erik de Castro,
[Posted, Friday, June 1, 8:36 PM ET]
LAMITAN, Philippines (Reuters) - Muslim rebels trying to shake off pursuing Philippine troops on a southern island took over a church and a hospital in a small town on Saturday and said they held 200 hostages, including doctors, patients and a priest.
Mortar and gunfire ripped through the town of Lamitan on Basilan island through the night. At least one body could be seen on the street in the morning and soldiers slowly advanced through the town to the sound of sporadic gunfire.
At a makeshift hospital in the town, more than a dozen soldiers were being treated, although some had what seemed to be mortal head and body injuries.
A spokesman for the Abu Sayyaf guerrillas said in a telephone call to a local radio station that the group controlled a church in Lamitan and its main hospital.
"We are part of an Abu Sayyaf suicide squad," spokesman Abu Sulaiman told the radio. "Now we have 200 more hostages. If you do not stop the military action, we will execute the hostages."
Military officials were not immediately available for comment.
Local officials in Lamitan, a bustling market town of over 100,000 people, mostly Christians, said the rebels had taken over the St. Peters Church and an adjacent hospital. Guerrilla snipers were in the belfry and on the roof of the hospital, they said.
They said at least three people were killed in fighting overnight, including two soldiers and one rebel.
Fighting between the rebels and the soldiers started on Friday morning elsewhere on Basilan. The rebel group was being pursued after it kidnapped 20 hostages, including three Americans, from an upscale island resort last Sunday.
At least 14 people, including 12 rebels and two soldiers, were killed in Friday's fighting, radio reports and military officials said. Dozens were wounded.
There was no word on where the 20 hostages were. But one of them appealed on local radio for an end to the military assault, saying that the hostages lives are in danger.
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June 2, 2001, AP, 8:35 AM, Military-Kidnapper Clashes Continue, by Jim Gomez,
Saturday
ZAMBOANGA, Philippines (AP) - Government forces fought street battles Saturday against Muslim separatists holding three Americans and 17 others, extending the battle from rugged jungles, officials said. At least two soldiers were killed.
Photo Gallery
Lapinid told reporters in nearby Zamboanga city, the headquarters of the southern command, that four soldiers were killed and 12 wounded in the fighting. Another spokesman said the body of an Abu Sayyaf gunman was also recovered.
Rose Tamayo, a correspondent for the Pilipino Star newspaper, said she counted 12 bodies at the Lamitan Municipal Hospital but could not tell if they were of civilians, rebels or soldiers.
Dozens of others with bullet wounds were being treated, she said.
Lamitan, a mainly Christian town of about 100,000 people, was badly scarred by the fighting. One school was burned down and bullet-marks pocked the fronts of many houses.
Thousands of residents fled the town. ``This is affecting our lives too much. We're evacuating without money,'' Hadja Nhena said while carrying belongings and pulling her four children through the streets.
A spokesman for the Abu Sayyaf guerrillas said in a telephone call to a local radio station that the group would execute hostages if the military did not pull back.
"We are part of an Abu Sayyaf suicide squad," spokesman Abu Sulaiman told the radio. "Now we have 200 more hostages. If you do not stop the military action, we will execute the hostages."
NO BACKING DOWN
But the government refused to back down. ``We shall pursue these policies until we annihilate the Abu Sayyaf terrorists, capture them or force them to surrender,'' said presidential spokesman Rigoberto Tiglao.
Basilan is a mountainous, heavily forested island and its jungle-clad hills have long provided base camps for the Abu Sayyaf, which claims to be fighting for an independent Muslim homeland but appears to concentrate on kidnap for ransom.
Lamitan, a bustling market town, is on its northern coast, slightly inland but connected to the sea by an estuary.
After six days of searching for the rebel gang across scores of islands and the seas in the archipelago, troops finally engaged them in thickly forested brush some six km (four miles) outside Lamitan on Friday.
The guerrillas lost some men but managed to escape toward Lamitan overnight, apparently in a search for medicine and treatment for wounded colleagues.
_________________________________________________________
June 2, 2001, AFP, 7:38 AM, Several killed in new hostage drama: Philippine officials,
Saturday
ZAMBOANGA, Philippines, June 2 (AFP) - Several soldiers, civilians and Abu Sayyaf rebels were killed Saturday in heavy fighting as the guerrilla group took 200 people hostage after entering a hospital and church in Basilan island in the southern Philippines, local officials said.
Fighting was raging in the predominantly-Christian town of Lamitan, whose mayor Inocente Ramos and area councillor Bidong Israel told a local radio station in southern Zamboanga city that there were "several killed" on both sides.
__________________________________________________________
June 2, 2001, AP, 7:36 AM, Philippines Army, Kidnappers Clash, by Jim Gomez
Photo Gallery
AP Photo
By JIM GOMEZ, Associated Press Writer
ZAMBOANGA, Philippines (AP) - Government forces fought street battles Saturday against Muslim separatists holding three Americans and 17 others, extending the battle from rugged jungles, officials said. At least two soldiers were killed.
About 40 to 60 Abu Sayyaf extremists invaded the town of Lamitan on the southern island of Basilan early Saturday and were waging a battle against troops, said town Mayor Inocente Ramos.
"There is heavy fighting and many killed," he told Radio Mindanao Network. "There are big explosions."
Less than six miles away, soldiers backed by helicopter gunships fought a running gun battle through rugged jungle with a 100-man contingent of the Abu Sayyaf, the military said.
In the fighting in Lamitan, Ramos said Abu Sayyaf members invaded a hospital and a church in Lamitan, only one of two Christian areas on the predominantly Muslim island.
He said they were holding a priest and several patients at the hospital. Radio Mindanao Network spoke to an unnamed town councilor who said at least one Abu Sayyaf commander was killed in the hospital siege.
As of late Friday, two soldiers, several civilians and some guerrillas were reported dead, and 14 soldiers injured, as the army fights to rescue the hostages seized from the Dos Palmas beach resort in the western Philippines Sunday.
The clashes began just before dawn Friday when a leader of the Abu Sayyaf guerrillas called a radio station claiming two captives had been shot and threatening to kill the rest.
There was no confirmation of injuries to the hostages.
Soldiers who pursued the fleeing Abu Sayyaf through the thick undergrowth, where visibility was estimated at only 15 yards, found the bodies of an unspecified number of rebels. Military officials said they believed others had been dragged away.
Military spokesman Brig. Gen. Edilberto Adan said late Friday that the rebels were in a valley about four miles from the shore. Troops were trying to cut off an escape route and surround them.
"The mission is clear: to maintain contact so as to prevent them from escaping. We are not here to disengage. We want to engage," Adan said.
It was unclear how many hostages were being dragged along by the rebels, who earlier claimed they split their captives into at least two groups.
National Security Adviser Roilo Golez said the government was seeking the ``unconditional release'' of the hostages.
Before the kidnappings, the military had about 1,800 soldiers on Basilan tracking the Abu Sayyaf guerrillas. More troops were being deployed to the island.
Abu Sayyaf gunmen seized the tourists Sunday from the Dos Palmas resort off Palawan Island, on the edge of the Sulu Sea. Basilan is at the sea's southeast corner, 350 miles away.
The Abu Sayyaf, which claims it fights for a separate Muslim state, seized 10 foreign tourists about a year ago from a Malaysian resort, and most were released for ransom.
________________________________________________________
June 2, 2001, Reuters, 8:15 AM ET, Six Philippine Hostages Escape, Scores Trapped, by Erik de Castro,
LAMITAN, Philippines (Reuters) - Scores of civilians were trapped as Philippine military helicopters fired rockets and troops rained gunfire on a hospital and a church taken over by Muslim rebels in the south on Saturday, officials said.
But at least six people out of 20 kidnapped by the guerrillas from an island resort a week ago were rescued or managed to escape in the confusion, President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo said.
Four of them were Filipinos, including an eight-year-old boy, but Arroyo did not say who the other two were. Military officials said they were still confirming identities.
There was no confirmed news on the whereabouts of the other people kidnapped at the time, including three Americans, but they are also believed to be trapped in the hospital in the town of Lamitan on Basilan island.
Residents said more than a dozen people were killed, including civilians caught in the crossfire, but the military said it could only confirm four soldiers and at least one rebel dead during the day.
Arroyo, speaking on national television, later said the rebel leader Khadafy Janjalani was among the dead.
"With his death, the bandits have lost their source of strength," she said. "To the leaders of the Abu Sayyaf -- there is no place to hide, so better release all the hostages and surrender. It needs only one bullet to get you."
Some 50 Abu Sayyaf rebels, fleeing from troops along with their hostages, rampaged through Lamitan, 900 km (550 miles) south of Manila, before dawn and took over a church and the town's main hospital.
They claimed they had captured an additional 200 people, including doctors, patients and a priest. However, a man who escaped from the hospital said he estimated there were about 100 trapped there.
SNIPERS TAKEN OUT
Troops directed mortar rounds and gunfire at the rebel positions and then sent in helicopter gunships to blast guerrilla snipers perched in the belfry of the St. Peters Church and on the roof of the adjoining hospital.
Machinegun bursts from armored troop carriers peppered rebel positions.
But by evening, fighting tapered off and the military said there was no return fire from the rebels.
"The Abu Sayyaf is not responding to gunfire, but we cannot assume they are running out of ammunition," said spokesman Colonel Horacio Lapinid.
"We have the upper hand. We are optimistic we will be able to rescue all the hostages safely."
Three Filipino tourists, including an eight-year-old boy, and a hotel security guard kidnapped last Sunday managed to escape along with some of those captured in Lamitan earlier in the day.
Ten fishermen abducted by the guerrillas were also freed.
"One kind Abu Sayyaf allowed me to run away,'' said Joey Candido, who was taken captive in the hospital.
By JIM GOMEZ, Associated Press Writer
ZAMBOANGA, Philippines (AP) - Government forces fought street battles Saturday against Muslim separatists holding three Americans and 17 others, extending the battle from rugged jungles, officials said. At least two soldiers were killed.
About 40 to 60 Abu Sayyaf extremists invaded the town of Lamitan on the southern island of Basilan early Saturday and were waging a battle against troops, said town Mayor Inocente Ramos.
"There is heavy fighting and many killed," he told Radio Mindanao Network. "There are big explosions."
Less than six miles away, soldiers backed by helicopter gunships fought a running gun battle through rugged jungle with a 100-man contingent of the Abu Sayyaf, the military said.
In the fighting in Lamitan, Ramos said Abu Sayyaf members invaded a hospital and a church in Lamitan, only one of two Christian areas on the predominantly Muslim island.
He said they were holding a priest and several patients at the hospital. Radio Mindanao Network spoke to an unnamed town councilor who said at least one Abu Sayyaf commander was killed in the hospital siege.
As of late Friday, two soldiers, several civilians and some guerrillas were reported dead, and 14 soldiers injured, as the army fights to rescue the hostages seized from the Dos Palmas beach resort in the western Philippines Sunday.
The clashes began just before dawn Friday when a leader of the Abu Sayyaf guerrillas called a radio station claiming two captives had been shot and threatening to kill the rest.
There was no confirmation of injuries to the hostages.
Soldiers who pursued the fleeing Abu Sayyaf through the thick undergrowth, where visibility was estimated at only 15 yards, found the bodies of an unspecified number of rebels. Military officials said they believed others had been dragged away.
Military spokesman Brig. Gen. Edilberto Adan said late Friday that the rebels were in a valley about four miles from the shore. Troops were trying to cut off an escape route and surround them.
"The mission is clear: to maintain contact so as to prevent them from escaping. We are not here to disengage. We want to engage," Adan said.
It was unclear how many hostages were being dragged along by the rebels, who earlier claimed they split their captives into at least two groups.
National Security Adviser Roilo Golez said the government was seeking the ``unconditional release'' of the hostages.
Before the kidnappings, the military had about 1,800 soldiers on Basilan tracking the Abu Sayyaf guerrillas. More troops were being deployed to the island.
Abu Sayyaf gunmen seized the tourists Sunday from the Dos Palmas resort off Palawan Island, on the edge of the Sulu Sea. Basilan is at the sea's southeast corner, 350 miles away.
The Abu Sayyaf, which claims it fights for a separate Muslim state, seized 10 foreign tourists about a year ago from a Malaysian resort, and most were released for ransom.
________________________________________________________
June 2, 2001, Reuters, 8:15 AM ET, Six Philippine Hostages Escape, Scores Trapped, by Erik de Castro,
LAMITAN, Philippines (Reuters) - Scores of civilians were trapped as Philippine military helicopters fired rockets and troops rained gunfire on a hospital and a church taken over by Muslim rebels in the south on Saturday, officials said.
But at least six people out of 20 kidnapped by the guerrillas from an island resort a week ago were rescued or managed to escape in the confusion, President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo said.
Four of them were Filipinos, including an eight-year-old boy, but Arroyo did not say who the other two were. Military officials said they were still confirming identities.
There was no confirmed news on the whereabouts of the other people kidnapped at the time, including three Americans, but they are also believed to be trapped in the hospital in the town of Lamitan on Basilan island.
Residents said more than a dozen people were killed, including civilians caught in the crossfire, but the military said it could only confirm four soldiers and at least one rebel dead during the day.
Arroyo, speaking on national television, later said the rebel leader Khadafy Janjalani was among the dead.
"With his death, the bandits have lost their source of strength," she said. "To the leaders of the Abu Sayyaf -- there is no place to hide, so better release all the hostages and surrender. It needs only one bullet to get you."
Some 50 Abu Sayyaf rebels, fleeing from troops along with their hostages, rampaged through Lamitan, 900 km (550 miles) south of Manila, before dawn and took over a church and the town's main hospital.
They claimed they had captured an additional 200 people, including doctors, patients and a priest. However, a man who escaped from the hospital said he estimated there were about 100 trapped there.
SNIPERS TAKEN OUT
Troops directed mortar rounds and gunfire at the rebel positions and then sent in helicopter gunships to blast guerrilla snipers perched in the belfry of the St. Peters Church and on the roof of the adjoining hospital.
Machinegun bursts from armored troop carriers peppered rebel positions.
But by evening, fighting tapered off and the military said there was no return fire from the rebels.
"The Abu Sayyaf is not responding to gunfire, but we cannot assume they are running out of ammunition," said spokesman Colonel Horacio Lapinid.
"We have the upper hand. We are optimistic we will be able to rescue all the hostages safely."
Three Filipino tourists, including an eight-year-old boy, and a hotel security guard kidnapped last Sunday managed to escape along with some of those captured in Lamitan earlier in the day.
Ten fishermen abducted by the guerrillas were also freed.
"One kind Abu Sayyaf allowed me to run away,'' said Joey Candido, who was taken captive in the hospital.
"I saw two Americans inside hugging each other in fright."
Lapinid told reporters in nearby Zamboanga city, the headquarters of the southern command, that four soldiers were killed and 12 wounded in the fighting. Another spokesman said the body of an Abu Sayyaf gunman was also recovered.
Rose Tamayo, a correspondent for the Pilipino Star newspaper, said she counted 12 bodies at the Lamitan Municipal Hospital but could not tell if they were of civilians, rebels or soldiers.
Dozens of others with bullet wounds were being treated, she said.
Lamitan, a mainly Christian town of about 100,000 people, was badly scarred by the fighting. One school was burned down and bullet-marks pocked the fronts of many houses.
Thousands of residents fled the town. ``This is affecting our lives too much. We're evacuating without money,'' Hadja Nhena said while carrying belongings and pulling her four children through the streets.
A spokesman for the Abu Sayyaf guerrillas said in a telephone call to a local radio station that the group would execute hostages if the military did not pull back.
"We are part of an Abu Sayyaf suicide squad," spokesman Abu Sulaiman told the radio. "Now we have 200 more hostages. If you do not stop the military action, we will execute the hostages."
NO BACKING DOWN
But the government refused to back down. ``We shall pursue these policies until we annihilate the Abu Sayyaf terrorists, capture them or force them to surrender,'' said presidential spokesman Rigoberto Tiglao.
Basilan is a mountainous, heavily forested island and its jungle-clad hills have long provided base camps for the Abu Sayyaf, which claims to be fighting for an independent Muslim homeland but appears to concentrate on kidnap for ransom.
Lamitan, a bustling market town, is on its northern coast, slightly inland but connected to the sea by an estuary.
After six days of searching for the rebel gang across scores of islands and the seas in the archipelago, troops finally engaged them in thickly forested brush some six km (four miles) outside Lamitan on Friday.
The guerrillas lost some men but managed to escape toward Lamitan overnight, apparently in a search for medicine and treatment for wounded colleagues.
_________________________________________________________
June 2, 2001, AFP, 7:38 AM, Several killed in new hostage drama: Philippine officials,
Saturday
ZAMBOANGA, Philippines, June 2 (AFP) - Several soldiers, civilians and Abu Sayyaf rebels were killed Saturday in heavy fighting as the guerrilla group took 200 people hostage after entering a hospital and church in Basilan island in the southern Philippines, local officials said.
Fighting was raging in the predominantly-Christian town of Lamitan, whose mayor Inocente Ramos and area councillor Bidong Israel told a local radio station in southern Zamboanga city that there were "several killed" on both sides.
__________________________________________________________
June 2, 2001, AP, 7:36 AM, Philippines Army, Kidnappers Clash, by Jim Gomez
Saturday
SAMPINIT, Philippines (AP) - Backed by helicopter gunships, soldiers fought a running gun battle through rugged jungle Friday against Muslim separatists holding 20 hostages. At least two soldiers were killed.
Sampinit, Philippines Bacolad City
Photo Gallery
AP Photo
By Jim Gomez, Associated Press Writer
SAMPINIT, Philippines (AP) - Backed by helicopter gunships, soldiers fought a running gun battle through rugged jungle Friday against Muslim separatists holding 20 hostages. At least two soldiers were killed.
The clashes began just after dawn - when a leader of the Abu Sayyaf guerrillas called a radio station claiming two captives had been shot and threatening to kill the rest - and lasted into the night on Basilan island in the southern Philippines.
There was no confirmation of injuries to the hostages, who include three Americans, but at least two soldiers were killed and 14 were wounded. Several civilians were hit by shrapnel from a grenade.
Soldiers who pursued the Abu Sayyaf through the thick undergrowth reported finding an unspecified number of rebel bodies. Military officials said others had been dragged away.
Brig. Gen. Edilberto Adan said late Friday that the rebels, believed to number about 100, were in a valley about four miles from shore. Troops were trying to surround them.
"The mission is clear: to maintain contact so as to prevent them from escaping. We are not here to disengage. We want to engage," Adan said.
It was unclear how many hostages were being dragged along by the rebels, who earlier claimed they split their hostages into at least two groups.
Word of the clashes emerged when Abu Sabaya, an Abu Sayyaf leader, breathlessly phoned local radio station RMN during the fighting and said two hostages were hit by gunfire.
Sabaya put one of the 17 Filipino hostages, Teresa Ganzon, on the phone. Her voice breaking, she said the captives were in mortal danger.
"We are appealing to the government on behalf of the other hostages, please refrain from military action," Ganzon said as gunfire rang out in the background.
"We are being treated well up to now, but these encounters are going to cost us our lives," she said. "There are children with us. It is not easy to be running in these mountains with children in tow. Please."
Ganzon said the American hostages were with her group, but she could not confirm if any captives had been wounded.
An Associated Press reporter saw helicopter gunships hammering Mount Sinangkapan, near the town of Sampinit. At least four explosions resounded in the distance, and residents said they heard howitzers fire 10 to 15 shells.
Col. Jose Mendoza said about 500 families, or 2,000 people, fled the fighting.
Sabaya said the fighting started when his men allowed some hostages to take a bath in a river. He said advancing troops found them and started firing.
"The soldiers thought they were rebels like us,'' Sabaya said. He added, "Maybe we will stage an execution. Welcome to the party."
He said besides the 20 hostages taken Sunday from the Dos Palmas beach resort in the southwestern Philippines, his group seized 10 fisherman.
National Security Adviser Roilo Golez said the government was seeking the ``unconditional release'' of the hostages but that military operations would continue. ``The ground commanders have orders to see to the safety of the hostages,'' he said.
Before the kidnappings, the military had about 1,800 soldiers on Basilan tracking the Abu Sayyaf guerrillas. More troops were being deployed to the island.
Abu Sayyaf gunmen seized the tourists Sunday from the Dos Palmas resort off Palawan Island, on the edge of the Sulu Sea. Basilan is at the sea's southeast corner, 350 miles away.
The Abu Sayyaf, which claims it fights for a separate Muslim state, seized 10 foreign tourists about a year ago from a Malaysian resort, and most were released for ransom.
_________________________________________________________________
June 2, 2001, AFP, 6:39 AM, Abu Sayyaf take 200 people hostage: report,
ZAMBOANGA, Philippines, June 2 (AFP)
The Abu Sayyaf Muslim guerilla group claimed over local radio Saturday they had taken over a church and hospital on Basilan island in the southern Philippines and were holding 200 people hostage.
"We are part of the Abu Sayyaf suicide squad. We are now in control of a church and hospital here with around 200 hostages," a spokesman for the notorious kidnapping group told Radio Mindanao Network, based in the southern city of Zamboanga.
______________________________________________________________
SAMPINIT, Philippines (AP) - Backed by helicopter gunships, soldiers fought a running gun battle through rugged jungle Friday against Muslim separatists holding 20 hostages. At least two soldiers were killed.
Sampinit, Philippines Bacolad City
Photo Gallery
AP Photo
By Jim Gomez, Associated Press Writer
SAMPINIT, Philippines (AP) - Backed by helicopter gunships, soldiers fought a running gun battle through rugged jungle Friday against Muslim separatists holding 20 hostages. At least two soldiers were killed.
The clashes began just after dawn - when a leader of the Abu Sayyaf guerrillas called a radio station claiming two captives had been shot and threatening to kill the rest - and lasted into the night on Basilan island in the southern Philippines.
There was no confirmation of injuries to the hostages, who include three Americans, but at least two soldiers were killed and 14 were wounded. Several civilians were hit by shrapnel from a grenade.
Soldiers who pursued the Abu Sayyaf through the thick undergrowth reported finding an unspecified number of rebel bodies. Military officials said others had been dragged away.
Brig. Gen. Edilberto Adan said late Friday that the rebels, believed to number about 100, were in a valley about four miles from shore. Troops were trying to surround them.
"The mission is clear: to maintain contact so as to prevent them from escaping. We are not here to disengage. We want to engage," Adan said.
It was unclear how many hostages were being dragged along by the rebels, who earlier claimed they split their hostages into at least two groups.
Word of the clashes emerged when Abu Sabaya, an Abu Sayyaf leader, breathlessly phoned local radio station RMN during the fighting and said two hostages were hit by gunfire.
Sabaya put one of the 17 Filipino hostages, Teresa Ganzon, on the phone. Her voice breaking, she said the captives were in mortal danger.
"We are appealing to the government on behalf of the other hostages, please refrain from military action," Ganzon said as gunfire rang out in the background.
"We are being treated well up to now, but these encounters are going to cost us our lives," she said. "There are children with us. It is not easy to be running in these mountains with children in tow. Please."
Ganzon said the American hostages were with her group, but she could not confirm if any captives had been wounded.
An Associated Press reporter saw helicopter gunships hammering Mount Sinangkapan, near the town of Sampinit. At least four explosions resounded in the distance, and residents said they heard howitzers fire 10 to 15 shells.
Col. Jose Mendoza said about 500 families, or 2,000 people, fled the fighting.
Sabaya said the fighting started when his men allowed some hostages to take a bath in a river. He said advancing troops found them and started firing.
"The soldiers thought they were rebels like us,'' Sabaya said. He added, "Maybe we will stage an execution. Welcome to the party."
He said besides the 20 hostages taken Sunday from the Dos Palmas beach resort in the southwestern Philippines, his group seized 10 fisherman.
National Security Adviser Roilo Golez said the government was seeking the ``unconditional release'' of the hostages but that military operations would continue. ``The ground commanders have orders to see to the safety of the hostages,'' he said.
Before the kidnappings, the military had about 1,800 soldiers on Basilan tracking the Abu Sayyaf guerrillas. More troops were being deployed to the island.
Abu Sayyaf gunmen seized the tourists Sunday from the Dos Palmas resort off Palawan Island, on the edge of the Sulu Sea. Basilan is at the sea's southeast corner, 350 miles away.
The Abu Sayyaf, which claims it fights for a separate Muslim state, seized 10 foreign tourists about a year ago from a Malaysian resort, and most were released for ransom.
_________________________________________________________________
June 2, 2001, AFP, 6:39 AM, Abu Sayyaf take 200 people hostage: report,
ZAMBOANGA, Philippines, June 2 (AFP)
The Abu Sayyaf Muslim guerilla group claimed over local radio Saturday they had taken over a church and hospital on Basilan island in the southern Philippines and were holding 200 people hostage.
"We are part of the Abu Sayyaf suicide squad. We are now in control of a church and hospital here with around 200 hostages," a spokesman for the notorious kidnapping group told Radio Mindanao Network, based in the southern city of Zamboanga.
______________________________________________________________
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