SULU – Abu Sayyaf militants freed Thursday 2 kidnapped Indonesian sailors in the southern Filipino province of Sulu where security forces clashed with the notorious group that left 5 soldiers wounded.
Sawal Maryam and Sarapuddin Koni were released in Indanan town. The duo boarded a jeep for the capital town of Jolo, but they were intercepted by troops at a checkpoint and brought to a military base.
It was unknown how much ransom was paid or who negotiated with the Abu Sayyaf for their freedom. But the former rebel group Moro National Liberation Front had previously negotiated with the Abu Sayyaf for the safe release of foreign sailors.
The Indonesian sailors were seized by militants in November last year while their cargo ship was sailing near Sabah in Malaysia. Their release coincided with fighting between militants and soldiers in Talipao town, about 25 kilometers away from Indanan town.
The Abu Sayyaf is believed to be holding at least 17 mostly foreign hostages in Sulu, one of 5 provinces under the Muslim autonomous region.
Just last month, Abu Sayyaf militants killed 2 soldiers and wounded another in a clash in Sulu’s Kalingalan Caluang town after militants attacked a group of patrolling army unit in the village of Pang.
Five militants were also killed in that fighting and their bodies had been by troops recovered along with 4 automatic rifles, a sniper rifle, a sub-machine gun and a shotgun.
The clash occurred following a deadline set by Abu Sayyaf militants on families of four kidnapped construction workers Felimon Cordero, Edmund Ramos, Joel Adanza and Jason Baylosis – all from Zamboanga City – who were later released unharmed. The militants said they will execute the workers – seized in July in Patikul town – if their families or government fail to pay millions of pesos in ransoms. (Mindanao Examiner)
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