Indons recovered in 3 days - Military

JOLO, Sulu (AFP) – A senior military official said yesterday he expects to recover three kidnapped Indonesian seamen being held by Abu Sayyaf rebels on this southern island within three days.

Southern Command chief Maj. Gen. Ernesto Carolina said the three Indonesians, who were seized at sea on Monday, were being held in a district near Luuk town and that the area was surrounded by police and military forces.

"Within three days, we will get the three remaining Indonesian nationals," Carolina told reporters on a visit here yesterday.

Marines and Navy men have been posted on all the small islands near Luuk to ensure that the kidnappers do not try to flee through these islets, the general said.

Four Indonesian seamen were taken from a tugboat hauling a barge of coal in the waters off the southern Philippines by members of the Abu Sayyaf, a Muslim guerrilla group with alleged links to the al-Qaeda terror network of Osama bin Laden.

One of the four, second officer Ferdinan Joel, escaped from his captors on Wednesday and confirmed that his compatriots were being held by the Abu Sayyaf in Jolo.

Joel, who emerged bruised and hungry from the jungles, singled out from police mugshots, Hamsiraji Sali, a top Abu Sayyaf leader based in Jolo, as the leader of the kidnapping band.

Just 10 days before the Indonesian’s abduction, Philippine troops staged a rescue operation for three hostages held by the Abu Sayyaf for nearly a year. US missionary Gracia Burnham was rescued but her husband Martin and a Filipina nurse were slain in the rescue.

"Ferdinan told military investigators that two young women brought them food and that when he saw a chance to escape, he did," said Jolo military commander Col. Romeo Tolentino.

The gunmen still have the boat’s skipper Muntu Jacobus Winowatan, chief officer Julkipli, and chief engineer Pieter Lerrech.

Defense department spokesman Melchor Rosales stressed that Joel’s statements were a "preliminary identification" of the suspects. The authorities are not yet 100 percent sure that Abu Sayyaf gunmen were really involved, he added.

The activities of the Abu Sayyaf, which also abducted a group of western tourists from Malaysia in 2000 and then murdered US hostage Guillermo Sobero and more than a dozen other Filipino captives last year, has led Washington to deploy 1,000 military advisers to the southern Philippines.

The Pentagon announced on Wednesday that the advisers would join Filipino troops on combat patrols to hunt down Abu Sayyaf rebels in Basilan, where the Burnhams were kept for nearly a year.

About 180 US Special Forces men have been training Filipino battalions on Basilan, but rather than working directly with soldiers in the field have provided advice from the relative safety of headquarters.

Allowing them to train at the company level means they will be able to advise Filipino soldiers as they engage in operations.

The step is significant because the presence of US soldiers on Filipino foot patrols raises the risk of them being drawn into combat.

The Philippines military estimates there are a mere 141 Abu Sayyaf gunmen left after a year-long military campaign on Basilan and Sulu islands.

US forces on Basilan came under fire for the first time this week when unidentified gunmen opened fire on two US marines and a Filipino guarding a US navy road construction crew there. The marines returned fire.