| Drive to free 2 hostages continues; 7 Sayyaf bandits killed
ZAMBOANGA
CITY—At least seven Abu Sayyaf terrorists holding an American and a Filipino hostage
on Jolo island were killed and 10 others surrendered as soldiers continued their operation
to rescue the captives, officials said yesterday.
One member of
the extremist Abu Sayyaf group was killed when a government patrol clashed with a rebel
band in a remote village in Panglima Estino town on Jolo island early yesterday, police
said.
There were no
other casualties reported following a brief gunfight, said Sulu provincial police chief
Candido Casimiro.
Casimiro also said
four Abu Sayyaf members surrendered to town Mayor Abas Estino and another six to the
police. It was not immediately clear whether those who surrendered belong to the rebel
band that clashed with the government patrol earlier.
On Tuesday,
soldiers engaged the rebels in a running battle in the jungles of Talipao town, leaving
six Abu Sayyaf bandits dead.
One soldier was
wounded, said local Army Spokesman Capt. Charlemagne Bata-yola.
The bandits are
still holding American Jeffrey Schilling and Filipino Roland Ullah.
Schilling, a
Muslim convert from Oakland, California, said earlier he is being kept in chains, has an
infection in his leg, and is losing hope he will be released.
Schilling, 24,
said the Abu Sayyaf band holding him traveled at night to escape pursuing military troops.
He said no doctors were available to treat his infected leg and he had no more medicine.
He said in a radio
interview he was becoming “less and less optimistic every day.”
It was the first
interview with the American since the military launched a rescue operation Sept. 16 to
free Schilling, Ullah and 17 other hostages. The 17 other captives have either been
rescued or escaped.
Abu Sabaya, leader
of the faction holding Schilling, threatened to kidnap more Americans if the US government
does not negotiate for Schilling’s release.
Ullah, the
longest-held hostage, was seized in April along with 20 other tourists and workers from
the Malaysian resort of Sipadan and brought to Jolo, about 950 kilometers (595 miles)
south of Manila. The rebels later abducted scores of other hostages. The other Sipadan
hostages were released in separate groups in exchange for more than $15 million in ransom,
hostage negotiators said.
--AP
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