ASGs in Dos Palmas abduction still at large

ZAMBOANGA CITY — More than a hundred members of the al-Qaeda-linked Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG) involved in the abduction of hostages, including three Americans remained at large, a ranking military Abu Sayyaf hunter said.

The military disclosed this following the fall over the week of two Abu Sayyaf members involved in the infamous kidnappings where two of the American hostages were murdered - Guillermo Sobero and missionary Martin Burnham.

Martin’s wife Gracia, the third American captive in the Dos Palmas kidnapping, was wounded but rescued after a year of search when they were kidnapped on May 27, 2001 along with 17 Filipino tourists.

Brig. Gen. Reymundo Ferrer, Basilan-based Army chief, said that 50 percent or about a hundred of the Abu Sayyaf involved in that kidnapping have been arrested or neutralized during the crackdown that started in 2001.

"We are hunting more than 200 of them who have participated in the Dos Palmas kidnapping but so far about 50 percent have been accounted," Ferrer said.