Catholic agency doubts Abu Sayyaf role in Italian priest kidnap

ROME (AFP) - The Roman Catholic news agency Asianews on Tuesday said it doubted that Al Qaeda-linked militants of the Abu Sayyaf group were behind the abduction of an Italian priest in the southern Philippines.

"The theory that Abu Sayyaf is behind the abduction of Father Giancarlo Bossi does not hold water," the Vatican mouthpiece said.
Asianews is run by the Pontifical Institute for Foreign Missions (PIME) which also employs Bossi.

Bossi was seized on June 10 by heavily armed men near his parish church in Zamboanga Sibugay province. He is the latest in a string of foreign missionaries kidnapped in the troubled south in recent years.

A senior advisor to Philippines President Gloria Arroyo on Sunday linked Abu Sayyaf, a gang of self-styled Islamic militants, to the kidnapping.

But Asianews said the theory did not stand up.

"Rather, from what we know, he is being held hostage by a gang of criminals," it quoted a local priest, Luciano Benedetti, as saying.

Military officials had previously identified renegade members of the separatist Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) as being behind the kidnapping.

The MILF, which is in the final stages of peace talks with Manila, has denied being involved and its members initially helped government troops in the hunt.